In 1884 the Edmonton Bulletin applauded the passage of two amendments to the North West Territories Act, the legislation that gives powers to the government of the old NWT, in which Alberta lay at the time.
The Bulletin proclaimed that "now that the powers of educational and municipal government have been granted the NWT council, all that remains is for the council to exercise them intelligently and with regard to the special requirements of the North West, rather than being blinded to the precedents of other provinces or countries, where not only circumstances are different but where there is difficulty in shaking loose from old prejudices.
It will be the job of the North West, through its council, to profit by the experience of at least all the localities from which the population is drawn.
By this means and under such exceptionally favourable circumstances, there is no reason why the North-West shall not be able to present to the world
municipal and educational systems at least a little nearer perfection than those of any other portion of the world."
Thus launched the great experiment that was Alberta.
Edmonton was one of he first cities in Canada to have a business-style civic government system. Soon after becoming a city in 1904 it adopted city commissioners.
Lethbridge adopted city commissioners -- and dismantled its city council. It adopted preferential voting (Alternative Voting) to ensure that the elected commissioners were fairly elected. It was the second city in Canada to do so.
Calgary then jumped past that, electing its city council and commissioners through STV starting in 1917. It was the first city in Canada to adopt STV.
Ten years later, every major city and provincial capital in western Canada had used, or was using, STV to elect its city councils and other officials.
By 1920 STV was adopted to elect MLAs in Winnipeg, and in 1924 to elect MLAs in Calgary and Edmonton.
Meanwhile, Prairie cities and provinces adopted the Single Tax, as proselytized by the great social reformer Henry George. This tax was intended to inhibit land speculation by taxing land heavily. It was intended to encourage development of property by taxing only land and not improvements.
However, much of Edmonton and other Prairie cities was not at all filled in with houses by 1913. Land values are based on expectation of future return, if not from speculation, then from profitable farming or business opportunities or sale to home-owners.
When the WWI recession hit, this expectation dried up, land values plummeted, and cities suffered loss of tax base. The Single Tax then was shown to be too limited. Those who owned large buildings would just have to pay more tax than those who owned a small building or a farm. But the initial fairness of only taxing land did encourage development at the time when development was needed.
I believe Alberta's four or five land tax rates on land outside the municipalities are a tweaking of the old Single Tax system.
A Single Tax today, at least as part of the tax regime, would help balance tax rates on small business blocks and mega-malls. As well, it would be a heavier tax on estates and a lighter burden on apartments in high-rises.
An apartment in a high-rise takes up say one-56th of three lots, while today paying a tax amount based on its value as if it occupied a full city lot itself. Its draw on roadwork, fire and police coverage and so much more is less, so such an apartment should pay less than a single home of the same value, maybe even less than a city lot sitting empty.
Such a change would be in line with the Single Tax - even if the apartment tax was reduced a reasonable amount, the amount of tax the City would reap from those three lots would be far greater than three city-lots equivalent of farmland.
And of course, to repeat an age-old refrain - we should drop the Education tax. Education is a social good, its benefits shared out across society. Parents should not have to pay, nor property owners.
Like highway roadwork, the cost of education should come out of income tax, a tax put on those most able to pay.
Thanks for reading.
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