Grande Prairie City Council has arrived at a tentative 2.28 per cent property tax increase on residents after all three days of budget deliberations.
The budget talks this year included discussions surrounding numerous operating costs, capital projects that have been in the works for years, and some brand-new projects. While not all projects received the green light, Grande Prairie Mayor Jackie Clayton says she is proud of her colleagues for the work that went into bringing the tax hike down from the originally planned 4.75 per cent increase to keep services running as normal.
“The 4.75 was the status quo budget, and so through evaluation and engagement in our community, we’ve heard that people are willing to see some reduction in services if it means their taxes go down,” she says. “There were some decisions that were made that impacted service delivery, there were decisions that were made based on having a surplus from 2024 so when you combine a few reductions, a few source changes, as well as applying the surplus that was recognized, we ended up at 2.28.”
At the end of day three, the Mayor addressed Grande Prairie’s reputation as being one of the higher property tax cities to live in Alberta. She says outside factors like the cost of housing are often overlooked by data sources, and even with the 2.28 per cent increase, Grande Prairie actually floats closer to the middle of the list at around “sixth or seventh place.”
“That reputation precedes us, and in reality, it’s not completely accurate, when we look at the data sources that are continually sharing that we have the highest taxes, it’s not a fair evaluation,” she says. “When you factor in what the housing prices are in Grande Prairie compared to communities like Canmore and Cochrane and even Red Deer, and you look at your monthly mortgage payments and you look at the combined of your, mortgage payments and your taxes put us in a significantly lower place.”
That being said, the mayor that the current council is committed to keeping the city an affordable place to call home, and Clayton says her colleagues have become increasingly more cognisant of affordability at the local level.
“Something that we’ve worked on this term, and it started last term, was being much more cognisant of the fact that we know it’s a great place to live, but it needs to be affordable,” she says. “The affordability piece continues to be what drives many of the decisions around the council table, that’s not about cutting programs, or cutting incredible amenities and assets in our city limits, it’s about making decisions that are keeping affordability at the forefront of our mind.”
Interestingly, Clayton broke down the city’s seven-year taxation rate after the meeting, which reveals Grande Prairie residents have faced a tax increase of less than one per cent per year over the past seven years.
Compared to other mid-sized cities like Red Deer, which saw an 11.5 per cent increase for 2025, and Cochrane which saw a similar increase for next year, Mayor Clayton says she and her colleagues are proud to be closer to the bottom of the mid-sized cities list, especially as inflation becomes an increased factor.
“When you scan the province, it will be, if not the lowest mid-sized city increase, it’ll be one of the top three lowest across the province,” she says. “Every single thing costs more today than it did over the last few years, a cumulative consumer price index increase over the same period of time is 20 plus percent, so everything that we do on a daily basis is costing us 20 percent more.”
The Mayor credits her administration team and fellow councillors with working together to reduce the impact of the tax increase and says the “entrepreneurial spirit” of Grande Prairie played a significant factor throughout the budgeting process.
“We often talk about the entrepreneurial spirit and the grit behind the people in Grande Prairie and this region, and the work that administration and council has done this week shows too that, it’s getting in and getting your hands dirty and finding solutions that are really what we know our residents are looking for.”
The tentative property tax increase will not be solidified until council’s December 2nd meeting. Should the tax increase move forward as anticipated, Grande Prairie property owners will pay around $6.15 more per month on their property taxes.
