1. Will you vote to repeal or remove the vacancy tax if elected? Why or why not?
I’ve detailed my position on the Livability Tax here:
https://robmurrayforcanmore.substack.com/p/the-affordability-crisis-in-canmore
I wrote this for a general audience and it’s already quite long, so I didn’t highlight much about the part-time residents who are subject to the tax. I’ll do this here.
I can definitely understand why it seems unfair to tax one segment of the residential base differently than others. The hard truth is that Canmore is in a hard place when it comes to financing the huge amount of below-market housing units that are needed to ensure that our workforce is also able to live here. Rent and market housing prices have gotten so far out of line with real wages that this kind of intervention is needed. For this large segment of Canmore’s population, I would argue the current situation is also unfair to them.
A municipality has a limited toolset within their direct control to bring in income – mostly just taxation. The Livability Tax is a rather novel interpretation of the MGA that crafted a new tool. It appears this tool may be taken away from the Town by the province, which is entirely their prerogative. In that case my answer to this question is there’s a good chance I’d have to vote to repeal or remove, if the province tells us to.
But that still leaves us in the same situation we’re in now – lacking the capital to build out the Palliser ASP, at least at the speed that’s required. If it’s not the Livability Tax, we still need something.
The Province could really help us here. The Town has been trying for well over a decade to get a Resort Municipality Status or similar additional funding source, that they have the ability to grant us. They have chosen not to do so, under successive governments.
2. What ideas do you have to fund, incentivize or otherwise address housing in Canmore, aside from a vacancy tax?
My professional area of expertise, from my years in a very public facing job at Mountain FM, are my communication skills. I will parlay that into listening, gaining an understanding of all perspectives, and bringing people together to collaborate on solutions.
I feel like this community needs to have a huge, focused conversation – something like a Mining The Future from a couple of decades ago, but focused on solutions to our affordability and other major challenges. This conversation would invite everyone in, and find the best solutions in the spirit of collaboration and compromise.
That’s my big idea. Here’s another one more specific to this group – part-time residents do leave the Canmore with a funding shortfall of sorts. Municipalities are allocated dollars from the province, most notably under the Local Government Fiscal Framework, tied to permanent population. If a quarter of Canmore’s housing stock is made up of non-permanent residents, that’s a big hole in our municipal budget.
There are other municipalities in Alberta where non-permanent residents are counted in this funding model. Places like Wood Buffalo and Grande Prairie County can apply for a shadow population count to make up for this gap. This exception is pretty narrow though – it’s mostly to account for oil-sands workers who spend a lot of time in these communities but don’t call them their permanent home.
If a program like this exists, maybe the exception can be widened to include part-time residents of municipalities. Once again, it requires the province to change some rules to help us, but if the framework already exists, this may be an easier sell than something entirely new.
3. How will you bring more accountability and effective governance to the Council and Administration?
I don’t know. I’m the new guy! Accountability and effective governance are important priorities for me. It’s hard for me to say ‘how’ without a better internal understanding of where there may be inefficiencies here, but it’s certainly something that will be on my radar.
4. Do you support Canmore pursuing Resort Municipality Status as a means of raising funds for the operation of the Town? Why or why not?
Yes. And Canmore could use your help.
For whatever reasons, our municipal government has been unable to move the needle with the province here by themselves. We need other voices advocating for this.
The fact that Premier Smith called out the Livability Tax in her mandate letter to Dan Williams suggests that the province is paying attention to what’s going on in Canmore. I realize I’m engaging in some speculation here, but if this is due to successful lobbying efforts from this group or people aligned with FFC, it means you may have the Province’s ear on this subject. If this is the case…it’d be great if you could put in a good word about this, for the future of our community.
Here’s a bigger idea – is a special designation for Canmore even needed? Alberta could let all municipalities do this – a new source of revenue from a small levy on hotel and short-term accommodation units within their municipal limits, to be returned to that municipality to fund infrastructure. It scales well – logically the more people who are visiting a place, the more infrastructure that is being used by users who are not paying taxes to support it. Municipalities everywhere are strapped for cash. It may fit within what seems to be the direction in the mandate letter to curb greater municipal taxation. I always love it when someone plays devil’s advocate and offers a solid counter-argument, so feel free, but to me this seems like a win for everyone.
5. Do you believe the province is supportive of the vacancy tax initiative?
From Premier Smith’s mandate letter to the Municipal Affairs Minister, it’s pretty clear that they are not supportive.
6. Why do you think the town spends so much money on external consultants, including lawyers? Is that a worthwhile spend?
I’d imagine the town hires external consultants for a variety of reasons so I can’t answer this without more specifics.
Regarding lawyers, for the most part in recent years the Town seems to be ending up in front of courts and tribunals because of lawsuits and challenges launched against them. So I’m going to say that the reason they may be spending money on lawyers is because the right to defend yourself in court is enshrined in Canadian law, and is a fundamental part of our democracy.
I realize this answer sounds like a deflection, but that has to do with the way this question is worded. So I’m going to ask/answer an adjacent question that might be at the heart of what you’re looking for here – “Why does the Town of Canmore keep finding itself in front of courts and tribunals, having to defend their decisions?”
This is what I’m more interested in finding out and working on solutions for. How have we managed to get to this point, where so many decisions affecting the future of Canmore are being made in courtrooms instead of meeting rooms? Where is the communication breakdown here? How can we come together in the spirit of providing collaborative, consensus, and compromise solutions to our issues? We have a massive issue around affordability, we need to take action on it now, and we’re wasting time with the constant feuding. Whatever it takes, it’s time to resolve our differences and move forward.