Okotoks residents who lost their home in a devastating fire on March 15 say they are disappointed in the Town’s response to their request for relief on property taxes and utilities.
The Town says they are trying to decide how to proceed after being informed by the homeowners’ insurance company that they will not be paying out the property taxes as is the standard, according to the Town.
The house fire victims say they were moved by the response from the community after the fire but are now feeling upset by the Town’s response to their request for property tax relief.
“We are both retirees and this has been an extremely traumatic event,” Graham Coulter wrote in a letter to Town council. “We have lost almost everything, and although the response from our family, immediate neighbourhood and friends as well as the entire Okotoks community at large has been completely overwhelming and supportive, we feel the Town could have been more helpful.”
Town Council was provided Coulter’s letter, along with correspondence from Bruce MacDonald and Karon Friesen – who also lost their home in the fire – during the April 11 regular meeting.
The Town decided to defer a decision on the property tax requests until April 25, pending advice from legal counsel.
Coulter and his wife Wendy lost all their belongings when their house in Sheep River Cove caught fire nearly a month ago. The blaze resulted in the loss of two homes and sufficient damage to two others.
The community rallied together to support those affected by offering up their homes, donating toiletries, clothes, meals, gift cards and more. Though the pair was extremely grateful for the outpouring of support from their fellow Okotokians, there was another cloud looming over their heads – taxes and utilities.
Coulter explained that on March 18, just three days after the loss of his home, he went to the Okotoks Municipal Centre to inquire about what could be done to ease his and Wendy’s woes.
What followed was a series of events that were stressful, Coulter said. He explained that several phone calls and emails were placed in an attempt to learn about possible relief from utility and tax payments. Coulter said this process was less than ideal, feeling like the couple had to jump through hoops.
“Although some may believe this to be a reasonable response from Town personnel, the expectation that we were expected to chase down utilities information far more readily available to Town personnel than ourselves, and that we must beg Town Council for tax relief on what is now an uninhabitable lot while dealing with the complete loss of our home and belongings is poor to say the least,” Coulter wrote. “Both our neighbour and us experienced the same response from Town staff. It is our hope when traumatic events such as this occur, that public facing employees be aware that under these stressful times their actions or lack thereof have an impact, leaving us feeling re-victimized.”
He said they are not looking for cancellation of their bills, just an adjustment in payment to correlate with the loss of their property. The Coulters have decided to continue paying their current rate through their monthly Tax Instalment Payment Plan (TIPP) until a decision is made to prevent owing a balance to the Town.
In her written comments to council, CAO Elaine Vincent called the circumstance “unusual,” adding that “most municipalities are not waiving tax in this situation because of section 349 of the MGA (Municipal Government Act).”
“What makes this situation different is under the Act, the insurance companies have honoured the Municipal Government Act and the Town is first charge on the proceeds,” she said.
When an insurance company pays out on a claim, the Town will receive its share in the amount owed on property taxes before the money is released to the homeowner. That isn’t happening here, according to Vincent, who said that the Town received a letter from the insurance company indicating that the tax share would not be payed out to the Town.
“So, the Town always received their tax money because it was paid from the insurance company. That’s not happening in this case and that’s why the Town is not prepared to take action because it has implications if this continued in the future.”
Chief Financial Officer Ralph Ettenhauer explained that the Town is conducting research on how to broach the situation, given that it is uncharted territory.
“We’re just defining what the roles and responsibilities are for each of the parties and the process,” he said. “So, we’ve been reaching out to other municipalities just to understand what the process is and make sure that whatever we recommend is part of that review.”
Bills for 2022 taxes will be sent out June 1. The Town said this gives it time to make a decision.
“We do have a little bit of time here; this isn’t a pressing bill that’s sitting on their owed at this moment in time,” said Mayor Tanya Thorn. “We can wait to get additional information back and not put these property owners in a precarious situation if they’re relying on that.”
Wendy said the couple is taking it day by day – living out of town until they move into a rental awaiting the construction of a new home.
