Do Albertans Pay Canmore’s Vacancy Tax?

Do Albertans pay Canmore’s vacancy tax? No, not since April 2026. Bill 28 stopped Alberta municipalities from charging occupancy-based tax rates to anyone who lives in the province, and the Town of Canmore rewrote its Livability Tax Program bylaw to match before it set the 2026 rates. If your primary home is in Calgary, Edmonton, Cochrane or anywhere else in Alberta, your Canmore condo is taxed at the primary-residence rate however often you use it. Here is what changed, who still pays, and the two things Albertans can still get wrong.

What Bill 28 changed: why Albertans no longer pay the Canmore vacancy tax

Bill 28, the Municipal Affairs and Housing Statutes Amendment Act, was introduced by Municipal Affairs Minister Dan Williams on April 2, 2026 as part of a package of Municipal Government Act changes. It prohibits municipalities from taxing homeowners differently based on how often they occupy their property if they live in Alberta (Rocky Mountain Outlook). The minister framed it as "putting Albertans first"; Premier Danielle Smith had directed him in a September 2025 mandate letter to "protect Albertans from specialized municipal taxes" (CBC).

The Town’s response was to keep the program and narrow it. Mayor Sean Krausert said Canmore would proceed "after taking steps to ensure our bylaw aligns with the requirement to exempt Albertan second homeowners," and Council set the 2026 rate on May 26. The Town’s own summary now reads: "As outlined in Bill 28, properties owned in whole or in part by individual Albertans are exempt from the program."

Who still pays the Livability Tax?

Owners whose primary residence is outside Alberta and whose Canmore home is not anyone’s primary residence for 183 days of the year.

Rates from the Town’s 2026 tax rate table; see Canmore property tax 2026 for the full breakdown and the Livability Tax explainer for the 183-day and 60-consecutive-day test.

How much revenue did the vacancy tax exemption remove?

A lot, which tells you how much of Canmore’s second-home market is Albertan. The Town originally projected $10.3 million in the program’s first year, based on 2023 utility data suggesting about 25% of homes were vacant more than half the year. After Bill 28 the 2026 forecast is about $4.4 million. The exemption cost roughly $5.6 million (Rocky Mountain Outlook, May 2026). Based on 2025 declarations, the Town estimated only 300 to 885 homes would fall into the taxable pool.

Original 2026 projection

$10.3M

before Bill 28

Revised 2026 expectation

$4.4M

after the Alberta-resident exemption

Declared out-of-province, April 1, 2026

300 owners

plus 566 properties with no declaration (CBC)

The Town has said the rates are fixed for 2026 even if more properties later prove exempt; the shortfall would show up as under-collection, not a rate change. A YWCA Banff project on the Moustache Lands (270 to 330 units) that relied partly on this revenue may be phased over a longer period.

Where are the edges of the exemption?

Three situations to check before you rely on it:

• Corporate or trust ownership. For the primary-residence route the Town is explicit: "the ownership type of a property doesn't determine eligibility; it is based on how the property is used." A home held in a company or a family trust qualifies only if someone actually lives in it as their primary residence. How the separate Alberta-resident exemption, worded around individual Albertans, applies to a corporate or trust owner is not spelled out publicly, so ask the Town's housing action team in writing before you rely on it.
• Mixed title. "In whole or in part" means one Alberta-resident owner on title should be enough. Out-of-province families sometimes add an Albertan relative for that reason; it changes ownership, mortgage qualification, estate and capital-gains outcomes, so get a lawyer’s view first.
• Moving out of Alberta later. The exemption follows the owner’s residency in each tax year. If you retire to B.C. and keep the Canmore place as a holiday home, you move into the taxable pool from that year on.

What this means if you’re buying

If you live in Alberta, you do not pay the Canmore vacancy tax, so buy on the merits and treat the Livability Tax as a filing chore rather than a cost, but do the filing. If you live outside Alberta, assume the higher rate applies from your first full year of ownership unless you or a tenant will live there 183 days, and price it in: about 0.38% of assessed value a year, on top of the base bill. Ontario owners can see how that lands across a whole purchase in buying from Ontario. Either way, confirm the property is not in the tourist-home class, because that tax does not care where you live. The second-home-from-Calgary post covers the financing and usage rules that do still change for Albertans, the Canmore vacancy tax guide sets out the declaration process in full, and the property tax calculator will give you the numbers for any address.