Farmers in Lac. Ste. Anne County are voicing their frustrations over a new proposed land tax brought forward by the region\u2019s council.<\/p>\n

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The county council says with rising costs they need more cash to maintain infrastructure such as roads and bridges, but farmers say it\u2019s not their problem to solve.<\/p>\n

The proposed tax would have farmers with five or more quarters of land pay around $2,500 to the county.<\/p>\n

A quarter is equivalent to 160 acres.<\/p>\n

Brad Javorsky farms north of Onoway, Atla. Following last year\u2019s losses around a tough growing season, he fears this proposal would hurt his operations further.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinancially, it would affect our farm a great deal,\u201d Javorsky said. \u201cWe\u2019re talking thousands of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Javorksy owns nine quarters and rents another five quarters of land. He believes if this proposed plan ever passes, it will open a pathway to implement changes or add more measures that will impact farmers\u2019 bottom line.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere is nothing in that bylaw that says they couldn\u2019t add that to every quarter section,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt could lead in the future to even being applied to rented land as well,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Jurgen Preugschas farms south of Meyerthorpe, Alta. He\u2019s frustrated that the county is going after producers.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThey\u2019re trying to find ways to raise money. They\u2019re throwing the big net out and trying to find a place to raise all those funds,\u201d Preguschas expressed.\u00a0\u201cI just don\u2019t believe the county is managed in a prudent fashion.\u201d<\/p>\n
County reeve Joe Blakeman said farmers with three or more acres receive a cut in residential taxes on their home. He said thought it was fair for farmers to pay up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe farms are getting bigger. They\u2019re not getting smaller. When the farms get bigger, they get a bigger break. We don\u2019t want them to be punished but everybody\u2019s got to pay fair and equitably,\u201d Blakeman said. \u201cProduction is getting bigger. Equipment is getting bigger. Roads are taking a beating and we need to find some way to help maintain those roads,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Javorsky said blaming farming machinery for run-down bridges isn\u2019t fair because they\u2019re not using them.<\/p>\n
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\u201cA lot of the existing bridges in this county, we can\u2019t use. Our equipment is too wide to get across them. We actually take two three times more road to get to a quarter to a field,\u201d Javorsky explained.<\/p>\n
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Blakeman said while they were discussing plans for farmers to contribute, a flat rate hike was never the plan and the county made an error.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a lot of variables into it. It wasn\u2019t just a flat 2,000. It never should have been advertised like that. It was a bad mistake on administration, city council for even having that hit the agenda,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Reeve is calling on the Alberta government to step in. He says the county has been maintaining bridges once looked after by the province.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs said they were unaware of the proposed tax but said municipal governments have the power to levy such a tax.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe encourage them to find a solution that works best for everyone,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n
Javorsky thinks this is an issue producers across Alberta should keep a close eye on.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat goes on in one county will surely come in the next in the future. It\u2019s precdent setting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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Farmers in Lac. Ste. Anne County are voicing their frustrations over a new proposed land tax brought forward by the region\u2019s council. The county council says with rising costs they need more cash to maintain infrastructure such as roads and bridges, but farmers say it\u2019s not their problem to solve. The proposed tax would have<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46481"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}