Work on site preparation in The Yard in summer, 2022/ (Susan McNel/paNOW)

By Susan McNeil

Arenas and pool

Special tax ‘impossible’ for The Yard says city manager

Mar 15, 2023 | 3:00 PM

City of Prince Albert council learned on Monday that it is not possible to create a special tax district for The Yard District, the new development that will house a twin pad arena and pool owned by the city.

Management said that in exploring the details, they learned that using a special tax to raise money is not allowed in this case.

“We have reviewed it and it would be impossible to impose those,” said Sherry Person, city manager.

The change does not impact the project underway, as it was never part of the building budget.

“That eight per cent levy has not been included in our funding model for the facility so it’s not going to affect the funding. It’s just that we wont be able to get the additional eight percent,” Person said.

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Administration had been asked last November to explore the idea of creating a way to put a levy on properties that are developed in the area to help recoup some of the costs of operating the new Aquatic and Arenas Rec. Centre.

The city has special taxes for extra police officers, road improvements and snow clearing as examples, but legislation specifies that it must be used for a purpose expected to be finished in the same year and must match revenue to expenses.

It also cannot be used for major capital work, such as the arenas/aquatic centre in this case.

Using a local improvement tax instead might be feasible but is a complicated process when it is tied to specific parcels of land. The amount of time staff would spend on getting everything in place would not be justified by the potential return.

The discussion on what the information means will come back to council in the future after they declined to pass a motion to rescind Mayor Greg Dionne’s motion from last year.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com