The Town of Hanna council agreed to have staff begin the process of taking ownership of a property that has unpaid taxes. The resolution was passed at the Oct. 14 regular meeting of council.

Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Matthew Norburn gave councillors an update on what was described at the meeting as lot 5 and portion of lot 6, block 42, plan 6133AW (tax roll 45400), a property in Hanna that has an outstanding tax bill.

Norburn noted a public auction was held last month for the property but at that time there didn’t seem to be a lot of interest shown. “We had the auction on Sept. 8, which nobody showed up for,” said Norburn to council.

The CAO’s report noted that all attempts to collect the unpaid property taxes have failed. “The owner or interested party had opportunity to pay the tax arrears, penalties and costs at any time priorto the auction in order to remove the property from tax sale,” stated Norburn's report to council.

“As of the most recent tax penalty on Oct. 1, 2025, tax roll 45400 has taxes owing in the amount of $9,704.23. The assessed value of the property is $130,570.

“The property is abandoned and has been for several months, and administration recommends that council authorize administration to take title of the property.

“As the property was not sold at the auction, the municipality has the option to take title to the property under tax forfeiture. The owners of the properties have not responded to any letters, invoices or notices sent to them.

“The utility account is up to date, if payment is not received any outstanding amounts are transferred to the tax accounts.”

During discussion councillors noted the property is not currently occupied.

Readers should note the Municipal Government Act (MGA) has rules in place for property forfeiture for tax recovery; in a nutshell, the unpaid tax bills must stretch into several years, the owner must be notified of every step taken in the debt collection process and the owner always has the option to pay off outstanding taxes right up until the property legally changes hands. If unpaid taxes are paid off, the tax recovery process halts immediately.

Once the property sells for market value, unpaid property taxes are paid first, then the remainder, if there is any, is returned to the original owner.

Councillors unanimously passed a resolution that the town begin the process to take ownership of the property in question due to an unpaid property tax bill.