CALGARY — Alberta must keep taxes low and collect them more fairly to attract business, says a group that spent four months studying the provincial tax system.
Recommendations from the Alberta Tax Reform Commission were made public Feb. 3.
Part of the study involved commissioners looking at tax regimes in other jurisdictions across North America. They found Alberta offers more tax incentives for business than some but is not as welcoming as others, said the commission’s chair, Jack Donald of Red Deer.
Other committee recommendations:
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- There should be a reduction in personal and corporate income taxes once the provincial government deficit is gone.
- Low taxes are not enough to bring in more business. An educated work force, a balanced budget and an “open-for-business attitude” are essential to future prosperity.
- Get government out of private sector business and away from meddling in the marketplace.
- There should be province-wide assessment of property tax. A single, independent assessor using one formula could assess all property with more consistency than each municipality conducting their own, said committee member Diane Hunter of Calgary. Residential, corporate and agricultural assessments should be based on market value and held more frequently.
The committee also recommends the business tax be rolled into a straight property tax. No more money would likely be collected but it would be done by fewer tax collectors in a more consistent manner, said Hunter.
- School boards should be allowed to raise three percent of their budgets over and above what they receive from the province. Three weeks ago the province took over property tax collections for school boards.
- Evaluate all fees collected by the government for parks, licences and grazing land.
- There should be a slight increase in tobacco tax.
- Farm fuel tax rebates should be dropped.
- Albertans should debate the introduction of a comprehensive consumption tax that would be harmonized with the federal goods and services tax. However this would only happen by a public vote of all citizens, said Donald.
Later, provincial treasurer Jim Dinning said no to any kind of sales tax.
“Premier Klein has made it clear that a sales tax is not the solution to our deficit problem in this province,” he told reporters at a Calgary press conference. He also said when the budget is tabled Feb. 24 some of the recommendations of the committee will appear. More will be implemented in about six months, he said.
