Unless its owners come up with a solution by the end of the summer, the historic Astoria Hotel in Jasper will be put up for public auction.

Since 2020, the Astoria Hotel has accumulated more than $720,000 in unpaid municipal taxes and penalties.  

On Tuesday (April 21), after lengthy debate, council approved a motion that the Astoria Hotel be offered for sale by way of public auction, with a starting bid of $9.6 million.

Under the Alberta Municipal Government Act, municipalities can recover unpaid property taxes by selling properties in arrears at public auction. After two years of arrears, a Tax Recovery Notification is registered, leading to an auction if taxes are not paid by March 31 of the following year.

Councillors approved a motion to set an auction date for September 17, 2026.

The auction will be cancelled if the Astoria pays its taxes or enters into a payment plan with the Municipality of Jasper. 

Only Mayor Richard Ireland voted against the motion, while Coun. Laurie Rodger had excused himself from the discussion due to a declared conflict of interest.

Oliver Andrew, hotel manager at the Astoria Hotel, told council he sent out letters from their bank and accountants confirming they were in the process of securing financing.

“I want to clearly acknowledge that we are behind on our municipal taxes,” Andrew said. “We take full responsibility for that.”

These tax arrears have accumulated over several years starting in 2020. Andrew said their troubles began with plummeting business levels during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said business stoppages during the 2022 Chetamon Mountain wildfire and the July 2024 Jasper wildfire disaster exasperated their “extraordinary circumstances.”

The business has paid around $434,000 in taxes since 2020. Their total tax levy during the same period was $780,000. The Andrew family asked Mayor Richard Ireland for that information to be put on the public record.

The Municipality has a penalty rate of 18 per cent for unpaid taxes, applied once annually to the total outstanding balance.

Monthly 3 percent penalties apply only to the current year taxes, before year-end.

Andrew requested that council direct administration not proceed with the auction and provide relief to hospitality businesses, which he argued were disproportionately affected by emergency events such as COVID and the Jasper wildfire.

Last September, council approved waiving $76,787 in 2025 penalties, subject to the Astoria enrolling in the Municipality’s preauthorized payment plan and paying the full outstanding balance by Dec. 31, 2025. Similar relief measures were granted to other local businesses following the wildfire. Andrew confirmed the Astoria had not enrolled in the plan.

Built in 1925, the Astoria Hotel is one of Jasper’s original hotels. The Andrew family has owned and operated the establishment for four generations.

Stepha Andrew with the Astoria Hotel told council they had faced a series of difficult years but were not denying their responsibility and wanted the opportunity to recover their debts.

“If the motion proceeds to auction off the Astoria Hotel, it will resolve our tax issues, but in doing so it will end a 100-year-old family business,” she said. “We are part of this community, we want to remain a part of it and we are just asking for leniency.”

Mayor Ireland acknowledged the contributions of the Andrew family, noting how his grandfather worked for the Andrew siblings’ great-grandfather, but he also noted the need for equity among taxpayers.

“The community is never smaller than it is on a day like today. We all know each other.

“It is an impossible task to be detached, although that’s part of our duty here,” Ireland said.

The auction date was initially proposed for June 11, but Coun. Kable Kongsrud suggested extending the deadline to the end of summer to give the Astoria more time. The date change required an amendment to the motion.

Coun. Ralph Melnyk, who made the motion, agreed with extending the date since it would give the Astoria “a golden 100 days” of summer to generate more revenue, and it would be difficult to undertake any transition in ownership right before tourist season.  

Coun. Wendy Hall added there was still incentive to settle this before July 15, when more penalties would accrue.

Ireland voted against the amendment and the main motion since he wanted to start seeing the business make payments sooner than September. He stressed the MGA’s legislation has put council into the position of having to take action.

“While I share the inclination to show leniency to a legacy business in the community…it’s taken the threat of for sale by auction to get us to this point,” he said. “Somebody has to get their ducks lined up, and it’s not us.”

Peter Shokeir, Local Journalism Initiative // info@thejasperlocal.com

With files from Bob Covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com