The Sentinel=record., 1912-08-04
CANADA'S LAND
 TAXATION SYSTEM
LAND ITSELF IS ASSESSED AT FULL VALUE BUT IMPROVE
 MENTS ARE NOT TAXED.
Government Is Encouraging the Set. tement and Improvement of
 the Northwest.

Edmonton, Alta. Aug. 3-More than q hundred agricultural communities in the province of Alberta will be or ganized this year under the Rural Municipality act passed by the last legislature and effective in 1913. The department of municipal affairs has so far received requests for petitions to organize municipalities, and it is announced that elections will be held ill S5 localities this month and that the plebiscites may continue to be taken until November
 Charles Stewart, minister of mu- nicipal affairs, announced in Elmon- ton today that the affairs of all local improvement districts in the pro- vince, whether or not they are to be organized. must be wound up the com ing fall. when an official audit will be made of the books of the authori- ties. Any balance shown on the deb it or credit side will be taken over by the new organization.
 The new system provides that taxes shall be levied equally upon all rate able land in the municipality accord ing to the assessed value of such land The assessment plan is based upon the following provision in the Rural Municipality act:
 Land shall be assessed at it's ac- tual cash value as it would be ap-
 praised in payment of a just debt from a solvent debtor, exclusive of the value of any building erected thereon or of any other increase of value caused by any other eXpendi- ture of labor or capital thereon" The question of taxation is dealt with entirely by the council of the rural municipality. The new act fixes the limit to taxation for municipal purposes at 10 mills on the dollar. It is not expected that a rate will be levied to exceed $S per 160 acres, and
 in many cases the rate levied will not
 exceed $3 or $4.
 | With a view to encouraging the cul
 tivation of farming lands to the pro l vince and at the same time discour aging the speculative holding of large acreages, several important amend ments will be brought to the atten
 ton of the next legislature. One oi these is a recommendation that the
 present refund of 25 per cent of all | taxes on cultivated land be increased to 50 per cent This, it is believed, would have the effect of driving the absentee speculator out of the field 1 Other amendments will be based upon
 the actual experience of municipali-
 ties when the act comes into opera tion next January.
 The act provides that every munici- pality shall insofar as is practicable 1 comprise an area of IS miles square, or 324 square miles, and all munich palities shall be laid out on a uni | form plan as the conditions of the system of the Dominion land survey
 and the physical features of the pro- vince will allow.
 The minister of municipal affairs
 may sever any portion of a munich pality and annex the same to any
 adjoining municipality; annex to any
 municipality outlying area hereafter adjacent to but not included within
 the limits of any municipality; alter and adjust the boundaries of two or more conterminous or adjacent mu- | inequalities; or withdraw from any
 municipality any area hereafter es-
 tablished as village under the pro-
 visions of the village act, passed by the legislature in 1907.
 John Perrie, deputy minister of mu,
 nicipal affairs and tax commissioner i of Alberta, made the following state ment at the government building in respect to an inquiry as to the opera