Correction
A previous version of this article erroneously said the bus driver for Greater St. Albert Catholic does not deploy flashing lights or stop sign at the stop along Highway 642 in Morinville. Both flashing lights and stop sign are used at that stop.
Bigger tax hike
Morinville residents will see a five, not four, per cent tax hike this spring due to sluggish economic growth, council learned last week.
Town council passed first reading of the 2019 property tax bylaw April 9.
In December, council passed the 2019 budget with the assumption of a four-per-cent residential tax hike (14.4 per cent for non-residential land under the new split mill rate).
That assumed that property values would rise 2.5 per cent, town corporate and financial services director Shawna Jason told council. Property values grew just 1.2 per cent, so the tax rate is going up to compensate. This also means town residents will pay slightly less school and seniors tax than expected, as those are based on property values.
The owner of the typical $300,000 home can now expect to pay about $2,196.32 in property taxes this year, or $104.59 more than last year and $20.92 more than predicted at budget time. They’ll also pay $11.83 more in education taxes ($3.45 less than predicted).
An owner of an equivalent non-residential property will see a 15.5 per cent tax hike and pay $324.22 more than last year, or $23.01 more than predicted. Their education taxes will drop $45.35 instead of rising $21.95 as projected.
Residential and non-residential property owners will pay $0.31 more for Homeland Housing, or $0.26 less than projected.
Add in the projected 6.81 per cent ($96.60) hike in utility rates, and the typical homeowner can expect to pay $4,515.57 in all municipal taxes and fees this year, or about $213 more than last year. That’s equivalent to about 21 dozen doughnuts at Tim Hortons.
The tax rates come back for second reading April. 23.
Bus safety questioned
A Morinville town councillor is questioning the wisdom of having school buses stop along the town’s main street.
Town council voted last week to have its traffic safety committee examine safety concerns around school bus stops located on Highway 642, which is the town’s main east-west road.
The motion was prompted by a request from Coun. Lawrence Giffin to have Mayor Barry Turner ask the Sturgeon Public and Greater St. Albert Catholic boards to perform a comprehensive hazard assessment of all bus stops.
In an interview, Giffin said he had heard concerns about students being fenced-in between snow banks and buses along Highway 642, and had witnessed cars nearly rear-end each other because they were uncertain if they had to stop when a bus had its flashing lights on and stop sign deployed.
Alberta traffic laws state that cars travelling in both directions along a non-divided highway must stop when a bus has its red lights flashing. On divided highways, only cars travelling in the same direction as the bus have to stop.
Giffin said that this was a safety risk along a four-lane highway like Highway 642, and questioned if it would not be better to have these buses stop elsewhere.
“I’m concerned that convenience may be more of a driver than safety,” Giffin said in council.
“I just think we should address this before there is an actual incident.”
Greater St. Albert Catholic transportation supervisor Lauri-Ann Turnbull said her board had just one stop along Highway 642 in Morinville. Students step directly from the bus onto the sidewalk and are instructed to cross the highway only at a crosswalk or corner. The driver does deploy the bus’s flashing lights and stop sign at this stop.
The district has worked with bylaw officers to address bus stop safety before and welcomed the chance to talk to town council about it, Turnbull said.
“We want to make sure our children are safe.”
In an email, Sturgeon Public superintendent Mary Lynne Campbell said the town had yet to share any concerns about stops along Highway 642 with the board.
