This op-ed was published in the Edmonton Sun on Monday, August 17, 2015.

When Wanda opened her property tax bill one morning in her Edmonton home, she was floored by a 17 per cent property tax increase. She started looking into her overall average annual increase from 2006 to 2014: 10 per cent, well over the city’s average for her neighbourhood.

When she contacted the city assessment department, they told her the increase was due to renovations on her home. The only substantial renovations had been done 25 years ago. Wanda dug up old receipts and even photos of herself and her late father in front of the house to prove it. Since then, she’d only done some landscaping and put on a new roof.

Begging the department for some answer that made sense, Wanda got nowhere. Letters and photos to her city councillor and the mayor went unanswered or were forwarded back to the assessment department.

Fed up, Wanda contacted the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF). She wasn’t alone. Unfair property tax hikes are the number one reason for which Albertans have contacted the CTF in recent weeks.

Renovations, sales in your area and any neighbourhood changes can impact your property tax bill -- meaning they’re unpredictable and catch many people off guard, leaving them struggling to pay the bills.

If the premier is willing to listen, there is a solution. Albertans need a municipal property tax cap.

A property tax cap could limit property tax increases to no more than the rate of inflation. It would freeze the assessment and only allow the rate to grow by the level of inflation. Once the house was sold, the assessment would change to reflect the new market price and then be frozen again.

The provincial government has the ability to freeze residential and commercial property tax rates and create, or push cities to create, a new property value assessment structure.

The rate of inflation was one per cent this year. Compare that to Wanda’s whopping 17 per cent increase.

Carol and her husband were also impacted by Edmonton property tax hikes this year. As seniors on fixed income, and with no employer pension for her husband to draw from, they have a hard time making ends meet.

A property tax cap would help seniors, persons with disabilities and anyone on fixed incomes, who are hit hardest by unexpected property tax hikes.

In June, Edmonton city council projected a property tax hike of another six per cent per year for the next three years (an increase which will be debated in the upcoming budget debates) -- another hit to the pocketbook.

Outside of the city in Westlock County, homeowners are also struggling. Deborah told the CTF that she and her neighbours are incensed over a 22 per cent increase in their property taxes. Thirty residents showed up to the June 23 Westlock County meeting, shocked by tax hikes after some zoning changes in the county.

Changing the property tax structure would involve the provincial government amending the Municipal Government Act. Municipal Affairs Minister Deron Bilous recently said he’s planning to look at the act anyway. What more perfect time? 

Small businesses are also impacted by unpredictable property taxes. One small business in Calgary saw its rate increase by 265 per cent. (Yes, you read that right.) Its rates should be brought in line with homeowners’ and increases should also max out at the rate of inflation.

It’s time Premier Rachel Notley stood up for taxpayers in homes and businesses, and set the rate of inflation as the maximum property tax increase municipalities can impose. 

Paige MacPherson is the Alberta Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.