WHEREAS Municipal Affairs provide linear assessment for all municipalities and Municipal Government Board (MGB) may overrule an assessment with each decision not binding on another; andWHEREAS a municipality provides the Designated Linear Assessor with strong evidence on the same issue of a previous MGB decision; andWHEREAS a municipality can not get the AEUB to make corrections in the board records;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Minister of Municipal Affairs review the department’s policy, guidelines, regulations and instruct the department staff to apply the MGB decisions by amending the assessment for the following years.

In each of 2004, 2005 and 2006, Northern Sunrise County filed linear property assessment complaints with the Municipal Government Board for certain wells which were assessed by the Designated Linear Assessor (DLA) as crude oil flowing when the wells were in fact pumping on October 31st of the applicable assessment year. We refer to these complaints as “wrong well status” complaints. We recently received Board Order 068/06. The Board allowed our wrong well status complaints for 2004 and 2005. The 2006 wrong well status complaints remain outstanding, and a merit hearing is scheduled for early November of this year.The DLA’s office advises us that the DLA will abide by the Order and issue amended assessments for the 2004 and 2005 complaints. However, the DLA refuses to apply the Order to the 2006 wrong well status complaints. We do not understand the DLA’s refusal, since the complaint is the same in 2006 as it was in 2004 and 2005, and we will have the same kind of evidence as was presented to the Board for the 2004 and 2005 complaints. In fact, many of the wells included in the 2006 complaints were also included in the previous complaints.The 2006 wrong well status complaints should be resolved without the necessity of another merit hearing as merit hearings absorb considerable time and resources for the county, the DLA and the Board. As our efforts to resolve these complaints have been unsuccessful, we would be very grateful for any assistance you could provide in this regard. Resolution 25-05F urged the Government of Alberta to make any amendments necessary to legislation, regulations and guidelines to update the linear oil well assessment well rates and ensure that the costs of pumps remain in the revised rates. The government response indicates that this issue was discussed in the fall of 2004 by the stakeholder working group that took part in the well property component of the regulated industrial assessment rate review. The municipal and industry representatives in this group held strongly differing views. Municipalities wanted to see pumping equipment included in the assessment, while companies wanted to see the equipment excluded. Both sides put forth arguments in support of their positions, and the AAMDC is monitoring the progress of this working group.Resolution 29-02F urged the Government of Alberta to make any amendments necessary to legislation, regulations and guidelines to ensure that these documents very clearly authorize the current practice of applying different levels of depreciation to pipelines, depending upon whether they are attached to “non- producing” wells or to “abandoned” wells. The government response indicated that the depreciation factors related to pipeline assessments are contained in the Alberta Municipal Affairs Minister’s Guidelines for the assessment of linear property. The regulated depreciation factors for pipelines are under review as part of the total review of rates and depreciation factors for all regulated industrial property assessment. The Ministry implemented the new regulated rates and depreciation standards for the 2004 tax year.

Resolution 25-05F urged the Government of Alberta to make any amendments necessary to legislation, regulations and guidelines to update the linear oil well assessment well rates and ensure that the costs of pumps remain in the revised rates. The government response indicates that this issue was discussed in the fall of 2004 by the stakeholder working group that took part in the well property component of the regulated industrial assessment rate review. The municipal and industry representatives in this group held strongly differing views. Municipalities wanted to see pumping equipment included in the assessment, while companies wanted to see the equipment excluded. Both sides put forth arguments in support of their positions, and the AAMDC is monitoring the progress of this working group.Resolution 29-02F urged the Government of Alberta to make any amendments necessary to legislation, regulations and guidelines to ensure that these documents very clearly authorize the current practice of applying different levels of depreciation to pipelines, depending upon whether they are attached to “non- producing” wells or to “abandoned” wells. The government response indicated that the depreciation factors related to pipeline assessments are contained in the Alberta Municipal Affairs Minister’s Guidelines for the assessment of linear property. The regulated depreciation factors for pipelines are under review as part of the total review of rates and depreciation factors for all regulated industrial property assessment. The Ministry implemented the new regulated rates and depreciation standards for the 2004 tax year.

Accept in Principle – Municipal Affairs conducted a review of their processes in order to addres this concern. In fall 2008 sitting, they amended the Municipal Government Act to give more powers to an assessor if they have reasonable grounds to believe that the specifications and characteristics of a linear assessment are inaccurate. If this happens, an assessor has the ability to prepare an assessment based on the most accurate information available. While this does not make MGB decisions binding towards AUC or ERCB records, it does give the assessor the ability to go by the information that is deemed the most accurate.