Last week, a formal Notice of Appeal was filed with the Court of Appeal of Alberta to strike down the Town of Canmore’s divisive vacancy tax. Seven Canmore property owners have escalated this fight to Alberta’s highest court, arguing that the Town blatantly exceeded its legal authority when it rammed through this discriminatory tax.
The appellants will work to convince the higher court of two critical legal failures with the vacancy tax:
- It’s a Municipal Power Grab: Canmore cannot create discriminatory property tax sub-classes while ignoring Municipal Government Act requirements—period.
- It’s an Illegal Power Transfer: The powers of an assessor, to assign properties to subclasses, to inspect properties and to require the production of information cannot be illegally handed off to Canmore’s Chief Administrative Officer.
See the Notice of Appeal Here: