A social media uproar over Prince Albert’s snow management levy spilled into city council Monday, where a heated debate over the city’s broader tax package ended with a failed attempt to split the bylaws apart, a 7-2 vote to approve the overall tax package, and a special meeting to deal with the remaining votes.
The issue had already been building online before council sat down Monday evening.
A public notice about the city’s annual snow management special tax bylaw made the rounds on social media over the weekend, with some residents reading it as a brand new tax proposal. Councillors said they were flooded with calls and messages, and the reaction quickly widened into broader frustration over property taxes, snow clearing, and how the city explains its tax tools.
That confusion became one of the first major points of debate in the council chamber.
Coun. Blake Edwards said council members had been “bombarded by residents” after the notice spread online. Kiley Bear, the city’s director of corporate services, told council the notice was not a media release and that the snow levy itself was not new.
She said the levy “has been in place for many years.”
Bear said what likely happened was that a resident saw the notice, posted it to social media, and gave it more attention than it usually gets, creating the impression that council was introducing a new tax.
The snow notice may have triggered the public reaction, but the debate inside council quickly expanded into a larger argument over the city’s entire tax structure.
Administration proposed a tax plan to collect the extra $3.49 million the city says it needs for its approved 2026 budget. The package included:
- A 2.03 percent increase to the general municipal levy
- A $35 increase to the residential base tax
- A $1 increase to the residential snow management levy
- A $11 increase to the residential roadways levy
- The removal of the $35 standalone police special tax
Administration said the resulting change would be a net increase of $12 for a residential property owner before other assessment-based tax calculations were applied.
Still, several councillors questioned the fairness and clarity of the package.
Coun. Daniel Brown repeatedly pressed administration over the gap between residential and multi-residential rates, saying duplexes and fourplexes use the same streets and many of the same services as single-family homes but appear to pay less in some categories.
“That’s $50 less than their neighbor that’s not in a fourplex or a duplex,” Brown said. “(It) makes no sense. They’re driving the same streets.”
Chief Financial Officer George Marshall replied that the numbers only make sense when all the tools are considered together, including mill rates, mill rate factors, base tax, and special levies.
Marshall said the four bylaws were being presented together because they form one tax package and changing one would affect the others.
“The decision on the budget increase was made back in the fall,” Marshall told council. “These tax tools are about how that budget gets allocated out throughout the city.”
Coun. Bryce Laewetz also took aim at the base tax approach, saying he could not support another increase to a tool he believes falls more heavily on lower and middle income residents.
“I don’t like that we continue to target the base tax because it disproportionately affects people in the lower middle class and lower income grades,” Laewetz said.
He also questioned why Prince Albert continues to post one of the highest tax rates among comparable Saskatchewan cities while residents do not feel they are seeing expanded services in return.
Other councillors defended the package as an imperfect but necessary compromise after weeks of budget discussions.
Coun. Stephen Ring argued that the base tax is better understood as a redistribution tool than a simple tax hike.
“A base tax is not an increase in taxes,” Ring said. “It is our only tool that we have at our disposal for a redistribution of those taxes.”
Brown then tried to force a procedural change in the middle of the meeting, asking that the tax bylaws be separated and debated one by one instead of as a package.
“I don’t know why we’re dealing with all these bylaws in one motion,” Brown said. “I don’t know why they’re not separated.”
That move drew one of the night’s clearest splits.
Edwards opposed it, saying council had already gone through the budget process in depth and that taking the package apart now would create bigger problems. Marshall warned that separating the bylaws would mean recalculating the full tax model and could delay tax notices by months.
If council approved the package Monday, Marshall said, tax notices could still go out in May, with taxes due at the end of June. Councillors later noted the city must give at least 30 days notice before the June 30 payment deadline.
Brown’s motion to divide the bylaws was defeated 7-2.
Council then returned to the main question and approved the overall tax package 7-2.
But the matter still did not end there.
When council moved into the formal bylaw reading, the main property tax bylaw, the snow management special tax bylaw, and the roadways special tax bylaw each passed first and second reading, but failed to get unanimous consent for immediate third reading. That meant all three had to be carried over to a special council meeting scheduled for Wednesday at 4 p.m.
The business improvement district levy bylaw was the only one to pass all the way through Monday night, including unanimous approval at the third reading.
The extra meeting added another point of irritation during the debate.
Coun. Blake Edwards asked whether a special meeting would cost the city money. Acting city clerk Savannah Prince told council there would “for sure” be money spent because staff would be coming in and working late. Laewetz later noted that out-of-scope employees do not receive overtime.
By the end of the discussion, what started as online anger over a snow levy notice had turned into something bigger: a public argument over how Prince Albert raises taxes, how clearly it explains those charges, and whether council has found a fair way to spread the cost of running the city.
Wednesday’s special meeting will decide whether the three remaining tax bylaws clear final reading.
arjun.pillai@paherald.sk.ca
