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Lethbridge City Hall -- LNN

Lethbridge approves support for provincial sales tax for municipal capital projects

Jun 16, 2020 | 1:40 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB– City Council decided during their meeting on June 15, to approve a motion to support a temporary provincial sales tax for capital projects.

The request for support came from the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA) and would be dedicated solely to generate revenues for municipal capital projects only.

For some time now, municipalities have been trying to add this provincial sales tax to ease the load on funding for capital projects.

The PST would be one per cent, if the Alberta government gives the AUMA plan the green light.

Mayor Chris Spearman acknowledged that this proposed PST will go over a lot smoother for Albertans instead of increasing property tax for the coming year.

The AUMA added this sales tax could generate approximately eight billion dollars annually for those projects.

“PST is an evil word to Albertans,” Spearman explained, and this PST is not a typical tax, it will be temporary and strictly for municipal capital projects.

The vote was 7-2 in favour of the motion. Councillor Blaine Hyggen was against the motion, he doesn’t want this PST to carry on after a specific period. He noted the GST was originally to be for just a limited period, but, it still with us.