To support municipal services and financial sustainability, and to incorporate targeted spending reductions, the 2026 budget added a 0.73% property tax rate increase. While very low, this amount maintains core services, funds all inflation in municipal expenses, absorbs increased cost downloading from other governments, and advances new investments in critical infrastructure and community safety.

This rate adjustment for municipal services is significantly less than consumer price inflation (estimated at 2.0% for Alberta) and far lower than other regional or provincial municipalities, many of which are considering increases ranging from 5% to 10%.

Thanks to Sturgeon County’s prudent planning that has put the municipality in a good financial position, the County continues to advance low or no tax rate increases, as it has done each year for several years.

The budget allocates funds for several key capital investments that will benefit residents across the County. This includes investments in:

Economic growth:

• A $16.6 million provincially funded process water intake project to unlock new growth in Sturgeon County’s Industrial Heartland.

Roads and infrastructure:

• $6.5 million for paving Range Road 10 from Highway 37 to Pine Sands Subdivision and a $4.7 million bridge replacement.
• $5.2 million for paving along Township Road 572 to Austin Acres/Range Road 230.
  
• $3.4 million for the replacement of the Victoria Trail Bridge.
  
• $3.1 million for road rehabilitation of Bristol Oakes and Lower Viscount Roads.
• Intersection upgrade for the intersection of Range Road 274 and Highway 633.
  
• Multiple other initiatives to maintain and improve infrastructure across Sturgeon County.

New investments will support enhanced community safety, in alignment with residents’ budget survey feedback, which ranked this among the top 5 community priorities. This will include:

• Enhanced emergency response capacity, to ensure the County remains a leader in attending to emergency situations.
• Planning and preparation for a new fire hall in the County, pending confirmation of location.
• Improved bylaw enforcement coverage, ensuring the County meets its legislative obligations in addition to resident expectations.
• Streamlined ‘one-window’ enforcement service delivery for residents, to improve response time and coordination.

The County is facing a unique challenge in its 2026 budget due to a substantial tax assessment appeal received in the summer of 2025. This appeal relates to a heavy industrial property assessed by the Government of Alberta and could result in an annual loss of millions of dollars in County property tax revenue.

While the outcome of the appeal is uncertain, Sturgeon County developed a plan to address this risk head-on—this plan included:

• finding cost savings;

• re-prioritizations; and,

• diversifying revenue sources to set aside a sufficient amount of funding in a specific tax assessment appeal contingency reserve.

Following months of detailed administrative review and a series of difficult choices, efficiency-based budget reductions of approximately $3.1 million and reprioritizations of approximately $1.5 million from the County’s operating and capital budgets were identified. These will be brought forward for Council’s consideration and approval.

The budget savings, re-prioritizations, and protective tax rate increase represent a prudent allocation of funding focused on keeping taxes low, minimizing the potential for significant disruption to the County’s core services, and maintaining the County’s strong financial position despite the risk of revenue loss.

In addition to the base adjustment, administration proposed a protective tax rate increase to fund the tax appeal contingency reserve to its full target amount. This allocation was approved by Council with a final tax rate effect of 2.33% to support prudent management of the County’s finances and to maintain long-term financial sustainability.

NOTE: The final tax rate depends on many technical factors, such as financial results from this fiscal year, growth of the County’s tax assessment base confirmed in early 2026, and the result of any subsequent direction from Council prior to Spring 2026.

Finding savings is a regular part of Sturgeon County's budget process, in support of a commitment to continuous efficiency and improvement. This year, it was critical to find more savings than usual to address a significant tax assessment appeal that was received in the summer of 2025.

A comprehensive budget review was undertaken to responsibly plan and respond to the appeal. $1.5 million in savings opportunities were identified, which is 1.0% of the County’s $150.8 million consolidated 2026 proposed budget.

In addition to this, $1.6 million in revenue was added to the budget due to greater reliance on interest income, and $1.5 million was added through reprioritizing transfers to reserves previously approved by Council.

County administration is very proud to recommend $4.6 million in operational savings, which will directly support Council’s affordability objectives and reflect further tightening to an already lean organization.

The approved budget includes an estimated 0.73% increase in the County’s property tax rate for residential and farm properties, and a 3.57% increase for non-residential properties, such as businesses. This amount is made up of three components:

1) A 0.12% tax rate decrease for the base budget, which typically covers inflation and growth.

• Property values in Sturgeon County are expected to increase, which will offset anticipated inflation, resulting in a net tax rate decrease of 0.8%.

• However, administration is proposing additional investments—primarily for Community Safety and Emergency Management—where service needs are critically required. These critical additions would have a tax rate impact of 0.68% if approved.

• This 0.68% increase for emergency services, combined with the 0.8% decrease in property value appreciation, results in the proposed base budget tax decrease of 0.12%.

2) A 2.33% protective tax rate increase to conservatively fund a tax appeal contingency reserve, in response to a major assessment appeal.

• The County received a significant tax assessment appeal in the summer of 2025, which could result in a consequential loss in annual property tax revenue.

• To manage this appeal, the County undertook a comprehensive budget review that identified several cost savings and reprioritization opportunities, totaling $4.6 million.

• If the appeal is successful, the County will have set aside the estimated amount of funding needed to address the loss in tax revenue.

3) A 0.84% tax rate increase to support capital projects.

• Various capital projects have been identified as priorities for the County, including several critical improvements to the County’s transportation networks. The total cost of these enhancements exceeds the funding available by approximately $10.1 million.

• To borrow the amount needed to cover the funding shortfall, the County would require an additional tax rate increase of 0.84% to service the debt.

Residents will benefit from new investments that support enhanced community safety. This aligns with residents’ budget survey feedback, which ranked this among the top 5 community priorities.

In addition, residents will benefit from enhanced road infrastructure, such as enhancements to Range Road 10 from Highway 37 to Dover Estates, and paving of Range Road 251 from Highway 37 to Carbondale Road.

All of these investments are in addition to the hundreds of municipal services and infrastructure programs that continue to be offered to residents and businesses.

Sturgeon County’s Capital Projects can be divided into two broad categories: Lifecycle and Enhancement.

1) Lifecycle projects are those that focus on maintaining and rehabilitating our existing infrastructure (e.g., repaving a road, rehabilitating a drainage ditch, replacing an existing bridge).

• These projects are prioritized based on infrastructure data and the current physical condition of the infrastructure.
• Increased usage in higher density areas results in increased wear, which in turn increases the need to rehabilitate this infrastructure more often to provide the same conditions as areas where infrastructure is less utilized.
• This data-driven approach ultimately ensures that infrastructure conditions remain largely consistent throughout the County over the long term.

2) Enhancement projects are those that upgrade or build new infrastructure (e.g., conversion of gravel roads to paved roads, construction of new pedestrian trails).

• These projects are prioritized based on several criteria, in collaboration with Council and in alignment with Council’s strategic vision for the community.
• Similarly to lifecycle projects, enhancement projects are selected and delivered with a County-wide lens to best address the overall infrastructure needs of all residents.

In 2026, County residents will see an increase in utility fees due to increased costs from service providers such as EPCOR (water) and Arrow Utilities (wastewater treatment). While the County’s portion of utility rates will see marginal change, there will be a 5% increase in EPCOR’s water costs, as well as a 34% increase in Arrow Utilities’ wastewater treatment costs.

For the average resident using these utility providers, this will translate into a monthly increase of about $16 (based on 22 cubic meters of water consumption). Utility rates are set to be finalized on December 9.

Additional information will be shared with ratepayers in upcoming utility bill mailouts.