City Council has had the opportunity to go over the mill rate during their most recent meeting.

On Monday night the mill rate was discussed at the council, presented by Swift Current’s General Manager of Corporate Services, Kari Cobbler. 

Cobbler offered a description of what exactly mill rates are and how they work.

"The mill rate is the property tax rate that is applied to every property in Swift Current," explained Cobbler. "Whether it be residential, commercial, industrial, or multifamily. From there it's a uniform mill rate that's applied to all properties. There's a separate mill rate factor that is applied to each class and subclass that each property does fall into for property taxation purposes."

In short, the mill rate determines, depending on what kind of property it is, how much it's going to be taxed.

Percentage values stipulated by the province are to remain unchanged this year. Agriculture sits at 55 per cent, non-arable at 45 per cent, commercial (industrial, railway, pipeline, elevator) at 85 per cent, multi-family residential at 80 per cent, and residential at 80 per cent.

Even though nothing changed, the motion being brought to council still has an impact.

"By bringing notice of motion, it's just advising of council's intention to bring forward the mill rate bylaws in the future," expanded Cobbler. "There will be 4 bylaws coming forward that once they are approved, they allow us to levy our annual taxes for 2022."

Even with the mill rates staying the same, there was an approved 2.15 per cent tax increase in the budget back in March.