The County of Stettler council effectively turned down a ratepayer’s request for tax forgiveness after it was claimed a property tax notice never showed up in the mail. The decision was made at the Dec. 10 regular meeting of council.

Tax Clerk Sharon Larsen presented councillor’s with a ratepayer’s request to waive $375.22 worth of later penalties after tax roll 539101 missed the Nov. 1 payment deadline.

The ratepayer, Dale McCann, stated in an email he family never received a tax notice in the mail. “We received our annual tax notice on Nov. 20 for the 2025 tax year for the property,” stated the McCann’s email dated Nov. 25.

“This is the first notice we have received since purchasing the property in Nov., 2024. As this is the first property my daughter has purchased she was unaware that she needed to contact the county office if no tax bill was received by June.

“Since both her name and mine are on the title, I assumed the tax bill had been sent directly to her. Due to this miscommunication and the fact that we did not receive a statement of account, the payment was missed.” McCann requested the late penalties of $375.22 be waived.

Larsen stated county staff did quite a bit of detective work to try to clear up an address problem with the tax roll in question. “The ratepayer spoke with our department although the address on file was correct at the time the notices were mailed (when the property had a different owner), he is confident that they did not receive a statement,” stated Larsen’s report to council. “The ratepayer of the address given by the lawyer came into the office in Aug. with an address change.

“The address on the title was not a valid address so our tax department reached out to the conveying lawyer in Feb. if a correct mailing address could be provided or if the client could contact out office. The law firm provided the address and the tax notice was sent on May 8, 2025.

“The tax department had advertised that the notices were sent out on May 8, 2025 and if you have not received your notice to please contact our office.

“All notices are deemed to have been received within seven days after being mailed as per the Municipal Government Act (MGA) Section 337. The tax department did not receive any returned mail from the address the lawyer had provided our office. The owner had placed a request with the post office to forward all mail to the new address. The ratepayer paid the taxes and the penalty on Dec. 3, 2025,” added the report.

Director of Municipal Services Andrew Brysiuk stated he felt county staff went above and beyond to try to sort out the address issue linked to this tax roll; he added that case law says that it’s the property owner’s responsibility to ensure the address on the land title is accurate and up to date.

Coun. Justin Stevens offered his take on this mix up. “I think that the sooner that people realize and accept that Canada Post is not always going to deliver on time or to the correct address, the better off everyone will be,” said Stevens.

Councillors unanimously agreed to in effect deny the request for tax forgiveness.