WHEREAS Municipal Government Board (MGB) Orders 204/98, 048/99, 165/99, 137/02, and 032/04 have either partially or fully exempted assessment of leased, licensed or permitted private enterprises within provincial parks; AND WHEREAS this sets up inequities between similar enterprises both inside and outside the park boundaries; AND WHEREAS the provincial government never intended these exemptions when consolidating the Municipal Taxation Act into the new Municipal Government Act;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the AAMDC request the Government of Alberta to take immediate action to restore the taxable status to all leased, licensed, permitted or otherwise contracted operations with private for-profit enterprises in provincial parks.

MGA 298(1)(k) states that No assessment is to be prepared for the following property: any provincial park or recreation area held by the Crown in right of Alberta or Canada, but not including any residence or the land attributable to the residence. This section, which deals with the assessment of Crown properties within provincial parks or recreation areas, is not clear enough and is being interpreted inconsistently by the MGB, courts and assessors. This interpretation makes it impossible to apply section 304(1)(c), which makes the holder of a lease, licence or permit on Crown property the assessed person. — Legislation should not provide a taxation advantage to businesses in provincial parks or recreation areas. It is recommended that Municipal Affairs correct this legislation in order to restore consistency to assessments. It is also recommended that in the future, Municipal Affairs take action immediately in these situations, and if this is not possible that Assessment Audit bring these inequities to the attention of each assessor.

The AAMDC has no resolutions currently in effect with respect to this issue.

This issue was addressed by the Municipal Government Amendment Act, 2005, which received Royal Assent in the spring of 2005.