At its Apr. 23 meeting, M.D. council heard the Alberta Forest Products Association and Mitsue industrial park mills ask for tax relief.
The association cited the poor state of the forestry industry and increased assessments on local forest company land in deserving a 10 per cent tax reduction.
“The tax assessments came as quite a shock,” said Brady Whittaker, executive-director of the Alberta Forest Products Association (AFPA). Whittaker spoke on behalf of local members of the association, whose representatives were also present. He described the current state of the industry before reminding council that it was under its jurisdiction to lower taxes.
Whittaker painted an ominous picture.
“When you lose over 1,000 people in this community, people will ask if you were proactive as a council,” said Whittaker. “This is your chance to do something. Those 1,000 families that leave Slave Lake, those are who you’ll have to answer to.”
He listed companies such as Tolko Industries and Vanderwell Contractors whose land assessments have increased this year by 114 and 140 per cent respectively. For Slave Lake Pulp, it’s 220 per cent.
“Alberta Plywood has gone up by 149 per cent this year,” said Whittaker. “This is not the time for these companies to sustain this.”
He said the association believes the new assessments to be in error, as the values of these mills and their equipment have not gone up.
M.D. Manager Allan Winarski reminded members of the association that industries are eligible to appeal their assessment values. Reeve Denny Garratt thanked Whittaker for making the trip from Edmonton.
“We are going to try as a council to make your lives better,” said Garratt.
The M.D. does have the ability to forgive taxes on a certain account, Winarski said.
Council resolved to have administration look into the feasibility and costs of granting a tax reduction and follow it up at a meeting next month.
The forest products industry is reeling, nationwide, from a variety of blows that include low U.S. demand for its products, the high Canadian dollar and high fuel costs. Many mills have been shut down. The AFPA claims that 3,000 jobs in the industry in Alberta have been lost in the past year.

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