The city is crying foul over a provincial fee that could cost taxpayers $447,000.
The province is increasing the fee it charges to process motor vehicle searches. Municipalities used to be exempt from paying the fees but that changed as of April 1, when it will cost $15 for each electronic motor vehicle search request.
The city learned of the change in a letter that arrived after March 15, more than two months after council had finalized the 2011 budget.
“We’re of the opinion that the provincial government has given us extremely short notice of the new fee,” said city manager Bill Holtby. “It was very last minute and [showed] no understanding by Service Alberta as to how we create our budgets.”
The city has few options for absorbing the cost other than downloading onto taxpayers, Holtby said. The fee would amount to a 0.63 per cent tax increase for St. Albert property owners. Council is scheduled to set the tax rate in late April or early May.
The City of St. Albert files 28,000 searches for vehicle information related to photo radar violations and about 1,100 searches for other violations, Holtby said.
Council agreed to have Mayor Nolan Crouse send a letter to Premier Ed Stelmach and Service Alberta Minister Heather Klimchuk.
Councillors are hoping to find support from local MLAs.
The cities of Edmonton and Calgary are also complaining about the fees, which are also on the radar of the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association, Holtby said.
“It’s going to probably pick up some speed across Alberta,” Crouse said.
If the province isn’t willing or able to drop the fee, he’d like to see an adjustment to photo radar fines so the city can recoup its costs with higher fine revenue.
Service Alberta can’t afford to offer free search information to municipalities, said spokesperson Sharon Lopatka. The department hasn’t increased the vehicle search fee since 2002 but its costs have increased 109 per cent.
“We just can’t continue to absorb these costs,” she said.
“We’ve also seen a steady increase in the demand for information from municipalities across Alberta,” she added. “The payment of this fee puts them on par with other stakeholders accessing the same search service.”
Municipalities take in $109 million in fine revenue but the fee is only expected to generate $12 million a year in revenue for the province, Lopatka said.
