A number of people ask me often:  What do my taxes pay for?  Some might think very little, but here are some of the things that your annual property taxes go towards.

We live in a Village with approximately 500 people and last year our property taxes brought in approximately $530,479 out of this amount we paid back to the Provincial Government into the Alberta School Foundation Fund (school tax) $126,610.  This left the municipality with a total of  $403,869 specifically allocated to operating costs.

So what did you, as a resident, get for that amount?  First you need to understand that our annual property taxes must only be put towards the Village's operating costs and not the capital costs.  Let me explain what are considered operating costs:  salary and wages; contracting out for general services (contract with Phantom Garbage); and any materials, goods, supplies and utilities needed to operate and function in all village owned buildings and assets (equipment). In 2023 we also received from the Provincial Government a grant (MSI Funding) for operating of $81,508 (this was doubled from the usual amount of approximately $40,000).

Now, capital costs and how we build a budget around those costs.  These costs have traditionally been funded from the Provincial grant program called Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI funding).  This year the name of the program has been changed to the Local Government Fiscal Framework (LGFF) in 2024-25.  Basically the same grant but the significant change is the actual funding granted, the amounts being transferred is being lowered.  Remember the Village Infrastructure Study concluded in 2022, that is a capital cost, and the total amount the Village paid was around $110,000 and all of this came directly from funding by the Provincial Government.  How about the lagoon rehabilitation in 2019:  that was funded by Provincial funding (MSI funding) and a grant applied for and received from Alberta Transportation.  The total cost of that capital project ran over one million dollars and sixty-five percent (65%) came from a grant through Transportation, the rest came from MSI funding.

What Services can Hay Lakes offer and how is it financed?