Locations
My colleague Eugene Hritzuk recently completed an interesting study of property taxes in 16 Saskatchewan cities.
In each case, the estimate was calculated based on a $4-million commercial property assessment from 2021.
The variance was substantial depending on where he looked.
The lowest total commercial property taxes of $42,128 and $43,533 were found in Warman and the Regional Municipality of Corman Park, respectively.
The honour of the highest taxes in the province goes to Prince Albert at $111,683 and North Battleford at $102,000.
That’s a sizeable difference!
Saskatoon and Regina fell right in the middle at $62,571 and $68,500, respectively.
Comparing apples to apples
To understand Hritzuk’s comparison method, the education and municipal tax amounts have been isolated.
He has adjusted the mill rate applied to the property assessment, which ranges from 1.07 to 1.95.
He has also removed various levies/fees added to basic municipal taxes, such as long-term care, recycling, wastewater management, infrastructure, recreation facilities, libraries, civic facilities, snow removal, road construction, police and fire, etc.
These numbers were based on the most recent assessment available.
The four-year adjustment on assessment values for Saskatchewan takes place in 2022.
Each office will be contacted again in the next few weeks to determine the new amounts.
Location consequences
There is no significant correlation between the size of the city and assessed values.
I have previously reported that Saskatoon and Regina’s commercial property taxes were considerably lower than the average Canadian city.
However, this recent deeper dive into the province’s secondary markets illustrates we have many provincial cities that would come close to the most expensive cities in the country.
This information will be of most interest to owner-users who have some flexibility in where they locate.
It is only one of many factors to consider, but it is an essential factor when there could be almost a $70,000 difference in property taxes between two secondary markets.
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