Although you can’t own the land in a national park, you can control it and you can be taxed on it.

That’s if you have purchased a home, anyway.

“If one owns a house on land here in Jasper, the land is considered to be in the control of the building owner,” explained Coun. Rico Damota.

Because of this, property taxes are determined by an assessment that takes into account the land and any structure on the land.

“So the land is intrinsic to the value of the property.”

Each year, the municipality, as required by provincial law, retains an assessment firm to establish assessment values for taxation purposes. An assessment is based on historical sale prices, improvements, property zoning and use. Commercial properties are also assessed on their income.

Once assessments are complete, a tax rate is determined by the total amount of taxes that the municipality needs to collect, divided by the total assessed value of properties in town.

Tax rates for commercial properties in Jasper are 5.1 times higher than residential properties. 

So, for example, if a residential taxpayer was paying $1 per $1,000 of property value for municipal taxes, a commercial taxpayer would pay $5.10.