VIKING ANIMAL CONTROL BYLAW TO BE REVIEWED

Viking Council deferred a decision on signing a lease agreement on land jointly owned by the town and Beaver County on Monday, April 18 during their regular Council meeting.

The lease was put forward by the county for Viking to sign, but as Council felt that a built in “disturbance factor” of $420 per cultivated acre by Beaver County limited development opportunities, they would prefer to review the lease.

    Council also discussed the possibility that the provincial government may have cancelled a grant formerly available to municipalities in lieu of taxes on non-taxable provincially owned buildings within the municipalities, brought to their attention during their March regular meeting.

    Acting CAO Allan Harvey explained that as the town is unable to tax a provincially owned building, the province has traditionally granted an amount equal to the assessment via grant funding.

Since this would be of particular notice to the Beaver Housing Council, Council asked Deputy Mayor Ellen Lefsrud to review the matter. Harvey noted that the loss of the grant-in-lieu would affect the town’s revenues by a figure of $32,475, and … for more see the April 26/16 Weekly Review.