WHEREAS all private land owners are responsible for the payment of their municipal taxes on their land;

WHEREAS the payment of municipal taxes on provincially-owned leased land is the responsibility of the lessee; and

WHEREAS some of these taxes are not paid for two or three years on some leased land by the lessee; 

BE IT RESOLVED that the Provincial Government ministry responsible for leased land pay all yearly taxes on said land and build the payment into the lease agreement.

Response from Honourable Bob Bjornerud, Minister of Agriculture:

Under The Municipalities Act, rural municipalities (RMs) are required to collect the taxes on occupied Crown land. These monies are used for such items as infrastructure and road maintenance costs. Crown land leaseholders are assessed as ratepayers and are required to pay municipal taxes on occupied Crown lands.

I understand that some RMs are having difficulty in collecting property taxes from lessees. However, existing legislation provides RMs the ability to request lease cancellation when taxes fall two years in arrears. If they do so, they will recover all outstanding taxes as legislation also states that the Ministry may pay up to two years of taxes on cancelled leases.