County of Paintearth approves tax sale for Throne property

The County of Paintearth council approved a tax recovery sale for a parcel of land (in blue) in the Hamlet of Throne. ECA Review/Submitted

The County of Paintearth council approved the sale of a property in the Hamlet of Throne linked to an unpaid property tax bill. The decision was made at the Jan. 7 regular meeting of council.

In a phone call to the ECA Review Jan. 13 Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Michael Simpson confirmed councillors chose March 25 as the date of the sale; since this is the same date as a regular council meeting; Simpson noted councillors may break from their meeting to conduct the sale.

Councillors also agreed to ask for offers in the form of sealed bids.

At the meeting, councillors read a staff report detailing their efforts to not only get an unpaid property tax bill paid, but simply to find the owner of the property in question.

“(The property in question) is bare land located in the Hamlet of Throne,” stated the staff report. “The landowner, whose last known address was Lacombe, has not paId taxes since March, 2020.

“All correspondence sent by mail has been returned to our office and other attempts to locate this ratepayer have been unsuccessful. The services of Commercial Credit Adjusters (CCA) were used and this avenue of locating the landowner has been unsuccessful as well.”

The staff report noted the unpaid property tax bill totals $429.62, excluding tax recovery costs which are added when the sale is completed.

Staff noted a similar property sold in Throne in March, 2021, which was used as a basis for the current situation. The county’s assessor recommended a value for the current property at between $750 and $1,000; current assessment, according to the report, was $870.

The CAO noted the parcel in question is a remnant from an old subdivision and that the parcel is unserviced.

Readers should note that the Municipal Government Act (MGA) lays out strict rules for how municipalities can sell properties connected to unpaid property tax bills.

The staff report noted the property in question was placed on the tax arrears list in March, 2023, notification was sent to the person liable for the arrears, a duplicate certificate of title was endorsed, costs for the endorsement were placed on the tax bill and certain public advertising requirements must be met.

The date for sale must be made public both through the Alberta Gazette, a sort of government newsletter, plus printed in at least one edition of a local newspaper and the public advertisements must be run for a certain number of days: up to 90 for the Gazette, up to 20 for the newspaper.

Stu Salkeld
Local Journalism Initiative reporter
ECA Review

About the author

Stu Salkeld

Stu Salkeld, who has upwards of 28 years of experience in the Alberta community newspaper industry, is now covering councils and other news in the Stettler region and has experience working in the area as well.

He has joined the ECA Review as a Local Journalism Initiative Journalist.

Stu earned his two-year diploma in print journalism from SAIT in Calgary from 1993 to ’95 and was raised in Oyen, Alta., one of the communities within the ECA Review’s coverage area.