November 4, 2024

Canmore Housing Action 2025

The livability Tax Program

A new tax rate has been introduced for Canmore properties in 2025. The goal is to incentivize the full time/long term occupancy of homes. The town of Canmore has sent letters out to all homeowners on October 30th, 2024 to inform them of this change. More details can be found at https://www.canmore.ca/your-government/projects/housing-action

A summary of the program is below:

Any owner of a residential property, or their authorized agent, will be required to annually declare if their property qualifies for the primary residential subclass by December 31 of each year.

How do I know if my property qualifies as a primary residence?

  1. To qualify as a primary residence:
    1. the property cannot be a tourist home,
    2. an owner or renter must live in a dwelling unit on the property for at least 183 cumulative days in a calendar year,
    3. 60 of the days must be continuous. This does not mean the owner or renter can't go away for the weekend or on vacation, it means the property is your primary residence you return to. This provision is meant to preclude properties being rented out short-term from qualifying.

How do I declare my properties status?

Residential property owners in Canmore will need to declare whether it was occupied full-time during the past year. Failure to declare will automatically assign your property to the higher tax rate. Only one declaration per tax roll is accepted.  Declarations are due by December 31, 2024. To declare your property go to canmore.ca/HousingDeclaration. You will need your tax roll number and access code to complete the declaration.

  • The letter mailed out to residential properties on October 30, 2024 contains the tax roll number and access code for you to complete this declaration.  
  • If you have not received your letter by November 8, email taxes@canmore.ca for assistance. 

Declarations will be required by December 31st of each year for the purposes of assessing taxes owing in the following calendar year. For example, a declaration attesting to the property’s qualification as a primary residence in 2024 will be due by December 31, 2024, for the purpose of assessing the 2025 property taxes. Print and/or retain a copy of your declaration for your records.

Additional Program Details

  1. Apartment buildings and employee housing as defined in the bylaw, and individually titled residential parking stalls and storage units will be automatically placed in the primary residential subclass, no declaration will be required.
  2. There will be a number of exemptions that preclude owners from occupying or renting out their properties in a year. In order to have an exemption recognized, a declaration will still need to be made. The exemptions include:
    1. the owner is hospitalized, or placed in a long term or supportive care facility,
    2. the owner passed away,
    3. a dwelling unit on the property was impacted by a catastrophic event that precluded occupancy,
    4. a dwelling unit on the property was undergoing permitted repairs or renovations that precluded occupancy, or
    5.  written order was in force that prohibited occupancy,
    6. the property was sold to an arm's length party.

How much will the taxes be?

This will come about from future decisions. As part of the regular budget process, Council will determine how much livability initiative funding revenue to collect each year, then in the spring, using the property tax mechanisms, be asked to set the tax rates needed to collect the budgeted amount.

A range of values was presented to Council at the August 20, 2024 meeting, for informational purposes. You can take a look at the table presented under Council Meetings 2024/August 20 agenda package (item # G-1 which starts on page 46) on this link.

For the median assessed residential condo ($761,000), for the range of values presented to Council, at 0.10% of assessed value, the increase in municipal taxes would be $761, and at 0.40%, it would be $3,044. For the median residential property ($1,043,000), at 0.10% it would be a $1,043 increase in municipal taxes and at 0.4%, it would be $4,172.  Please note they have not decided on the rate and in the spring will announce the rate for that year.

Go to the Town of Canmore website for more information and to submit your declaration.

Where will these increased taxes fund

The town of Canmore has stated these funds will “go towards funding affordability initiatives in Canmore. This could be used for a variety of community assets from land purchase for affordable housing, to paying for infrastructure that supports housing development.”