Property values up in Alix, Alta., council hears

The Alix, Alta. village office in Sept. 2023. (Source: Google Street View)

The Village of Alix council heard a report that the municipality's equalized assessment has risen considerably compared to similar villages. The report was made at the Oct. 2 regular meeting of council.

Village chief administrative officer (CAO) Michelle White provided council with a report on equalized assessment; that is, the average of property values of all Alberta villages.

“Alix saw a 10.54 per cent increase in residential equalized assessment, a 9.42 per cent increase in non-residential equalized assessment and a 2.66 per cent increase in equalized machinery & equipment assessment,” stated the CAO’s report to council.

“The average for all Alberta villages in these categories were as follows: residential up 5.73 per cent, non-residential up 4.08 per cent, machinery & equipment up 6.13 per cent.

The machinery and equipment provincial average is skewed due to one village showing an increase of 49.97 per cent and another village showing a 1,212.5 per cent increase in that category.

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“Equalized assessment is found by averaging assessment information across all similar size communities in the province. This is done to help calculate things like school requisitions from the province and various capital grants.”

During discussion councillors noted Alix went up, “...way up,” in equalized assessment when compared to most other communities its size.

They observed such an increase can be a double-edged sword, illustrating growth or prosperity but also drawing increased requisition fees from the government of Alberta.

Big savings

The CAO gave councillors an update on major work done on the village’s wastewater lift station. She reported that the project is done and actually came in about $72,000 under budget.

White noted such savings were possible by village staff performing some duties rather than the contractors and Tagish Engineering negotiating with the contractor on behalf of the village.

It was noted the original budget for the project was $885,000.

Coun. Janice Besuijen seemed quite happy with the savings. “That’s beautiful,” said Besuijen.

Aging meters

White reported that certain village water meters may be a bit long in the tooth.

“Staff have noted a significant increase in water meter battery changes and whole unit water meter changes needed over the past couple of months,” stated the CAO, who noted the meters in question appear to have just exceeded their warranty period.

“Our usual average might be three to four batteries and one meter per month. In July there were nine batteries to be changed out and in August there were eight batteries and one meter. Staff are projecting similar numbers for September.

“These were meters that were installed in 2008, so they have had a good useful life. It is just worth noting because it will start having budget impacts if this trend continues as well as taking more staff time and may also have an impact on our ‘water loss’ numbers if the batter/meter change outs can’t be scheduled for early in the month.”

Passing grade

CAO White noted that village staff recently hosted an Alberta safety codes inspector at the municipal arena.

“The inspection went well and follow-up items were noted by the inspector,” stated White, who noted most of the follow-up items were minor such as public notice posters.

“The safety codes inspector said they have a goal to check every arena in Alberta in 2024 to get a baseline for where everyone is at.” 

Alix is about 55 kilometres northeast of Red Deer.