(Susan McNeil/paNOW Staff)

By Susan McNeil

Property tax

Property tax jump due to budget increase, assessment changes

May 29, 2025 | 2:00 PM

Some property owners in Prince Albert are in shock after significant increases in their property tax bills.

Mayor Bill Powalinsky said that there are several reasons the jump was significant for some people this year, and the size of the increase can give a clue where it came from.

“A property tax increase of more than $500, would be as a result of revaluation. This is a revaluation year,” he said.

Residential properties pay tax based on 80 per cent of their assessed value, while commercial properties are taxed at 85 per cent.

“Not all properties change equally. It depends on how your property value changed relative to other properties.”

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While virtually all municipalities in Saskatchewan use the Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency to conduct their evaluations, Prince Albert conducts its own assessments using the guidelines established by SAMA- the Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency. Saskatoon and Regina do as well.

If a property tax increase is around $400, then it was likely because of the city tax policies passed this year.

The base tax was increased from $45 to $365 for residential properties and from $22 to $140 for multi-residential properties.

Base taxes are used to make sure that all properties pay into the cost of providing services such as police, fire and road maintenance.

The city has several special taxes as well, like one for the pro-active policing unit ($35/door), a snow tax ($75/residential unit and $24/multi-unit) and roadways ($204/residence and $67/ multi-unit).

Those taxes are also applied to commercial properties on a sliding scale.

“There’s many moving parts to that and there’s many different pieces that go into the tax increase,” said Powalinsky.

Prince Albert kept its tax increases smaller than other municipalities over the pandemic years and this year needed to make up for that.

“At the time other municipalities or cities were experiencing high tax increases anywhere from six to nine per cent, the City of Prince Albert remained consistently very low. If we had progressed four or five per cent annually, I think those increases would be more likely to be palatable but all of a sudden, we have to make this jump.”

Council at the time acted on the premise that property owners needed the tax relief because of financial pressures brought on by COVID.

People who think their assessment is unfair can talk to the city’s assessment office and may be able to appeal.

For the 2025 budget year, the city added about $8.5 million to bring it’s total to around $43 million. A large portion went to pay for increased wages as the city police and firefighters, along with staff, settled contracts.

Council also gave the Prince Albert Police Service a budget increase after having denied 50 per cent of their requested increase the year before.

“We know that crime is a big issue and we can’t ignore that, we have to be really responsive,” Powalinsky said.

“Our purpose is to make sure that our police are resourced adequately for officers and for technology and that comes at a cost.”

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

On BlueSky: @susanmcneil.bsky.social