At Monday’s meeting of City Council, the mill Rate, and mill Rate factors were set for the City of Swift Current.

The mill rate sets the percentage of taxes payable per dollar of taxable property owned by City residents.

Mill rates for the City were levied as follows

  • Chinook School Division and Holy Trinity Roman Catholic School Division - 11.263 Mills

  • Agricultural property - 1.43 Mills

  • Residential Property - 4.12 Mills

  • Commercial/Industrial Property - 6.27 Mills

  • Resource - 9.68 Mills

There is also a base tax amount of $820 for residential units per property, and $820 per unit in Residential Condominiums. Those amounts increased by $20 compared to last year.

If a property is classified as more than one of the property classifications, the residential portion of the property will also be held to the base tax amount.

City Council also specified that discounts on 2020 levies will be allowed in accordance with bylaws issued by the City of Swift Current, as well as that the mill rate bylaw will go into effect on January 1, 2020.

The notice of motion for that bylaw was given on March 27, 2020.

The mill rate for Swift Current’s school divisions is not set by the City of Swift Current.

Mill rate factors were also up for discussion at the council meeting. Mill rate factors are to decide what each property class pays.

Those factors are as follows

  • Multi-Unit Residential - 1.5633

  • Multi-Unit Residential for multiplex units between four and six units - 0.7893

  • General Commercial - 1.8292

  • Commercial 2 - 3.407

Those apply to both land and improvements for those classes.

The bylaw to amend the factors also came into effect on January 1, 2020. Notice of the motion was also given on March 27, 2020.

A tax notice is said to be sent out in late June to let residents know the amount of taxes due. Residents have until September 30 to pay their amount owed.

Also announced were the organizations in Swift Current that would have tax exemptions for this year.

City of Swift Current Chief Administrative Officer, Tim Marcus said those they help in this way are services they think benefit quality of life to residents.

“It’s our way of being able to ensure those services are provided in the City.”

The 27 protected organizations include non-profits, as well as Elmwood Golf Club and The Lyric Theatre.

When asked why the golf club was on the list, Marcus explained.

“The City runs a golf course at Chinook, so we don’t have municipal taxes on that golf course, so we do the same for the other golf course, which is Elmwood.”

“It wouldn’t be fair to charge them to Elmwood and have a disparity between the two courses in the rates that could be provided.”

He mentioned that the City of Swift Current is also a partner with The Lyric Theatre.