Housing Action

Program Details

A Livability Tax Program is being implemented for property taxes payable in 2025. Owners (or their authorized agent) will be required to declare annually if their property was occupied full-time over the previous year. Houses that are not lived in full-time will pay higher taxes on the municipal portion of their tax bill. This money will go towards funding affordability initiatives in Canmore. This could be used for a variety of community assets from land purchase for affordable housing, to paying for infrastructure that supports housing development. 

1. An owner of a residential property, or their authorized agent, will be required to annually declare if their property qualifies for the primary residential subclass by December 31 of each year.
2. The primary residence declaration is now available on this webpage.
3. To qualify as a primary residence:
   • The property must be where the owner or renter conducts their daily life, their government issued identification shows this address, as well as their CRA documents and any other mail they may receive, and
   • the owner or renter must live in a dwelling unit on the property for at least 183 cumulative days in a calendar year, and
   • 60 of the days must be continuous. This does not mean the owner or renter can't go away for the weekend or on vacation, it means the property is your primary residence you return to. This provision is meant to preclude properties being rented out short-term from qualifying, and
   • a person may only have one Primary Residence, and
   • the property cannot be in the Tourist Home tax subclass.
4. Apartment buildings with all units under one tax roll and employee housing as defined in the bylaw, and individually titled residential parking stalls and storage units will be automatically placed in the primary residential subclass, no declaration will be required.
5. There will be a number of exemptions that preclude owners from occupying or renting out their properties in a year. In order to have an exemption recognized, a declaration will still need to be made. The exemptions include:
   • the property was sold to an arm's length party in the previous taxation year, is registered or in the process of being registered with Land Titles and is immediately occupied (by the purchaser or a tenant) as a primary residence.
   • the property was newly constructed, occupation and normal use of the the property as a primary residence was not possible,
   • a dwelling unit on the property was undergoing permitted repairs or renovations that precluded occupancy,
   • the owner is deceased in the last two years,
   • the owner is hospitalized, or placed in a long term or supportive care facility,
   • written order was in force that prohibited occupancy,
   • a dwelling unit on the property was impacted by a catastrophic event that precluded occupancy.

Program Details

This program is currently in development. More information will be posted as it is available.

Why?

The economics for the private sector to construct rental apartments when land prices are high is extremely challenging, which is why we do not see a lot of it in Canmore.