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City homeowners and non-residential property owners will enjoy slight DECREASE in taxes in 2022

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City Hall

Red Deer tax rates approved by City Council

Red Deer City Council approved the tax rate bylaw at their regular meeting.

Recognizing the need to support economic recovery for Red Deerians, Council approved the City budget in November with a zero per cent municipal tax increase for 2022 to minimize financial impact on taxpayers.

“Our objective is to lessen the financial burden on our citizens and businesses, while ensuring The City can continue to provide essential services like police, emergency response and critical infrastructure maintenance,” said Mayor Ken Johnston.

When combined with requisitions The City must collect on behalf of other organizations, there will be a tax decrease of 0.30 percent for residential and non-residential properties. Multi-family properties will see a tax increase of 0.53 percent.

For 2022 tax penalty rates have been lowered from the historical seven percent to five percent. Penalties are applied to current year unpaid taxes on July 1 and September 1, and on taxes in arrears on January 1 and July 1. This lower penalty rate will provide continued financial support for those having difficulty paying by the due date.

“We have made this change to provide financial relief to taxpayers who may be struggling as a result of impacts of the pandemic,” said Joanne Parkin, Revenue and Assessment Manager. “We encourage anyone who may not be able to pay their taxes by the deadline to pay as much as they can to reduce penalties, and to reach out to our office to discuss payment options.”

At today’s meeting City Council also approved the Business Improvement Area (BIA) Tax Rate bylaw. The BIA tax applies to taxable businesses in the downtown to fund the Downtown Business Association (DBA) budget, which was approved by Council in December. There was no increase on the tax revenue requirement in 2022 and minimum tax will remain the same.

“An increase in the number of businesses reopening or moving into the BIA may indicate signs that downtown business is beginning to stabilize and recover from the pandemic,” said John Sennema, Economic Development Manager. “That in conjunction with a stronger economy will hopefully continue this trend.”

The deadline for 2022 property taxes and BIA taxes is June 30, any unpaid taxes will be subject to a five percent penalty on July 1. Owners can join the Tax Instalment Plan (TIP) until June 15 to make tax payments through to the end of the year in equal monthly payments with no penalty.

Tax notices will be mailed May 24. Approximately 6,500 households have opted to receive their notices electronically, and the remaining notices will be distributed by mail.

Property owners wishing to connect with The City about their tax bill can email [email protected] or call 403-342-8126. More information about the Tax program is available on the City’s website at www.reddeer.ca/tax.

 

2025 Federal Election

Poilievre will cancel Mark Carney’s new Liberal packaging law and scrap the Liberal plastic ban!

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From Conservative Party Communications

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre promised today that a new Conservative government will stop Mark Carney’s proposed Liberal food tax and scrap the existing Liberal plastic ban. Poilievre will:

  • Stop proposed new labelling and packaging requirements that will raise the cost of fresh produce by as much as 34% and cost the average Canadian household an additional $400 each year.
  • Scrap the Liberal plastics ban, including the ban on straws, grocery bags, food containers and cutlery, and other single-use plastics, letting consumers and businesses choose what works for them.
  • Protect restaurants, grocers, and low-income Canadians from one-size-fits-all packaging rules that disproportionately affect those who can least afford it.

“After the Lost Liberal Decade, many Canadians can barely afford to put food on the table. And now Mark Carney and the Liberals want to make it even harder with a new food packaging law that will raise the price of food–again,” said Poilievre. “A new Conservative government will keep food prices down by scrapping the Liberal plastic ban and stopping Carney’s new Liberal food tax.”

After a decade of out-of-control spending and massive tax increases, families are spending $800 more on food this year than they did in 2024, and food banks had to handle a record two million visits in a single month. In Montreal, 44 percent of CEGEP students are experiencing some form of food insecurity, while places like HawkesburyKingstonToronto and Mississauga have all declared food insecurity emergencies.

And food prices are still rocketing upwards, surging by 3.2% over the last year, with no end in sight. In the last month alone, food inflation increased by 1.9 percentage points—the largest monthly jump in food prices in decades.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, Liberals have made life even more expensive and inconvenient for Canadians by banning plastics – including everything from straws to bags to food packaging. The current Liberal ban on single-use plastics will cost Canadians $1.3 billion dollars over the next decade.

Now Mark Carney wants to make it worse by adding complicated and costly new food packaging rules that will drive up the price of food even more–in effect, a new Liberal food tax. Plastic food packaging makes up 1/3 of all plastic packaging in Canada. The proposed Liberal food tax will cost the average Canadian household an additional $400 each year, waste half a million tonnes of food, decrease access to imported fruit and produce, and increase food inflation. The Chemistry Industry Association of Canada has also warned that this tax will put up to 60,000 Canadians out of work.

“The Liberals’ ideological crusade against convenience has already driven up food prices and the last thing Canadians need is Mark Carney’s new food tax added directly to your grocery bill,” said Poilievre. “The choice for Canadians is clear, a fourth Liberal term that will make food even more expensive or a new Conservative government that will axe the food tax and bring back straws, grocery bags and other items, to make life more affordable and convenient for Canadians – For a Change.”

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Business

Ted Cruz, Jim Jordan Ramp Up Pressure On Google Parent Company To Deal With ‘Censorship’

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Andi Shae Napier

Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan are turning their attention to Google over concerns that the tech giant is censoring users and infringing on Americans’ free speech rights.

Google’s parent company Alphabet, which also owns YouTube, appears to be the GOP’s next Big Tech target. Lawmakers seem to be turning their attention to Alphabet after Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta ended its controversial fact-checking program in favor of a Community Notes system similar to the one used by Elon Musk’s X.

Cruz recently informed reporters of his and fellow senators’ plans to protect free speech. 

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“Stopping online censorship is a major priority for the Commerce Committee,” Cruz said, as reported by Politico. “And we are going to utilize every point of leverage we have to protect free speech online.”

Following his meeting with Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai last month, Cruz told the outlet, “Big Tech censorship was the single most important topic.”

Jordan, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, sent subpoenas to Alphabet and other tech giants such as RumbleTikTok and Apple in February regarding “compliance with foreign censorship laws, regulations, judicial orders, or other government-initiated efforts” with the intent to discover how foreign governments, or the Biden administration, have limited Americans’ access to free speech.

“Throughout the previous Congress, the Committee expressed concern over YouTube’s censorship of conservatives and political speech,” Jordan wrote in a letter to Pichai in March. “To develop effective legislation, such as the possible enactment of new statutory limits on the executive branch’s ability to work with Big Tech to restrict the circulation of content and deplatform users, the Committee must first understand how and to what extent the executive branch coerced and colluded with companies and other intermediaries to censor speech.”

Jordan subpoenaed tech CEOs in 2023 as well, including Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Tim Cook of Apple and Pichai, among others.

Despite the recent action against the tech giant, the battle stretches back to President Donald Trump’s first administration. Cruz began his investigation of Google in 2019 when he questioned Karan Bhatia, the company’s Vice President for Government Affairs & Public Policy at the time, in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Cruz brought forth a presentation suggesting tech companies, including Google, were straying from free speech and leaning towards censorship.

Even during Congress’ recess, pressure on Google continues to mount as a federal court ruled Thursday that Google’s ad-tech unit violates U.S. antitrust laws and creates an illegal monopoly. This marks the second antitrust ruling against the tech giant as a different court ruled in 2024 that Google abused its dominance of the online search market.

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