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12/01/2025
Politics driving dips in Canadian visitors to Great Falls
In the years since 2020, Great Falls has been rebounding from the near halt of visitor traffic during the height of the COVID pandemic. The city returned to pre-COVID levels of visitation in 2024, according to Rebecca Engum, executive director of Great Falls Montana Tourism.
But 2025 has been a down year for Great Falls. And while it isn’t a decline on the scale of COVID, it is an outlier amid more long-term annual growth in visitation.
“Starting in January, you can see the faucet just kind of turn off, if you will,” Engum told Montana Free Press. “We’re still seeing Canadians, but certainly not in the volumes we’ve seen in the past.”
It isn’t just Canadians, either. All kinds of business, recreational and shopping traffic appear to be down this year. The Great Falls Tourism office receives anonymized data about the average number of hotel rooms occupied each month, and those have been below 2024 levels every month this year.
Previously, year-over-year growth was the norm.
“To see continued, month-over-month declines is not something that would be normal for our market,” Engum said.
There are lots of factors that impact travel. Early in 2025, travelers may have been less certain as the federal government reviewed and reduced grant spending. Government-related business travel, which is common in Great Falls, slowed amid federal cuts, Engum said. Return-to-office policies further curtailed business-related traffic, which typically accounts for about 40% of visits, according to the tourism office. This fall, the federal government shutdown closed the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, a common stop for travelers.
But that Montana-Alberta connection, typically strong along the Interstate 15 corridor (Alberta Highway 4 on the northern side), is a notable factor contributing to the decline in visitation this year. Arrivals through the Sweet Grass border station fell well below 2023 and 2024 levels, according to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol data. The sharpest decline in 2025 was in passenger car crossings.
And the reason for much of that decline is clear to Engum. She said her office has heard about it on social media, in news coverage and emails.
“And we do know that it has a lot to do with policy and statements from federal government leadership,” she said.
Thorny spring tariff negotiations, talk of making Canada the 51st state and other political skirmishes seemed to sour Canadians on U.S. visits this year. It’s a similar story in Flathead County, which also has close relationships across the border but is seeing fewer Canadian crossings due to the political environment.
In October, Great Falls Mayor Cory Reeves traveled to Alberta to meet with Lethbridge Mayor Blaine Hyggen and discuss “citizen diplomacy” with local residents. Reeves told MTFP last week that, yes, Canadians are “frustrated with some of the rhetoric.” He said that his trip was to show a little neighborly spirit for our region, despite what happens in Washington, D.C., and Ottawa.
“[We wanted to] show people that, regardless of what’s happening at the federal level, the boots-on-the-ground people have open-door policies,” Reeves said. “We’re still getting along.”
Canada remains a major source of visitation for the region. In a down year, Engum said her office has trimmed some marketing expenses in lower-performing markets. But marketing to would-be visitors closer to home, including Canada, remains part of the strategy.
For Reeves, the regional ties will help propel a visitor rebound.
“We’re still friends and allies, and that’s what’s important,” he said.
Calumet gets tax reduction of $1.4M in settlement
Calumet Montana Refining will get $1.44 million back from the roughly $12.3 million the company paid in property taxes for 2022, 2023 and 2024, according to revenue figures released last week by the Cascade County Treasurer’s Office.
The company will receive an additional $163,210 in interest that accrued during the appeal for a total refund of just over $1.6 million.
Calumet appealed the Montana Department of Revenue’s property valuation for those years and paid its taxes in protest. That appeal was settled in October after negotiations between the company and the revenue department. Montana Renewables, the biorefinery and subsidiary of Calumet, was not part of this protest.
The settlement includes a property tax increase for 2022 of about $1.1 million, according to the county treasurer’s office. Calumet’s property tax bill was then reduced by $1.95 million for 2023 and $595,973 for 2024.
The revised property tax numbers are the result of new property values agreed upon by Calumet and the state revenue department. The numbers from Cascade County confirm the estimated reduction from Calumet’s press release in October that announced the settlement.
“We take our financial obligation to the community seriously and are committed to supporting Cascade County through our fair share of taxes,” said Kollin Schade, Calumet senior vice president of Montana operations, in that October release. “This reassessment reflects our dedication to transparency, collaboration, and long-term investment in Great Falls.”
This latest settlement is smaller than that from the company’s previous tax protest, which affected the 2017 through 2019 tax years. That settlement in 2020 resulted in a property tax bill reduction of $5.9 million over those years.
Paige Smith, Cascade County’s property tax supervisor, said in an email to MTFP that the Department of Revenue may make more revisions that could impact those tax proceeds, but those discussions are between Calumet and the state. Inquiries to the Montana Department of Revenue and Calumet for clarification weren’t returned by Wednesday.
Calumet and its subsidiary, Montana Renewables, are together the county’s largest taxpayers.
Photo Op
Friends, family and colleagues gathered at Fire Station 1 on Nov. 25 to celebrate four promotions at Great Falls Fire Rescue.
From left to right are Assistant Chief of Support Services Nathan Schmidt, Capt. Adam Jordan, Lt. Brooke Wells and Adam Smith, the newest firefighter at the department. The four firefighters took oaths and received their pins during the ceremony.
Calling all photographers: Submit a photo for Great Falls This Week to [email protected].
Deputy county attorney pay, once among the lowest, now among the highest
Cascade County commissioners last week approved a labor contract with deputy county attorneys, bumping starting pay up 6.6% from the previous contract, which began in 2023.
The Cascade Deputy County Attorneys’ Association has 14 members as part of its union, which is relatively uncommon for that profession among Montana counties. Membership doesn’t include the chief civil and criminal deputy county attorneys, according to the new agreement.
The entry-level salary for a Cascade County deputy county attorney is now $95,460, the agreement states. That’s up from the starting salary of $89,522 in the previous contract.
Over a slightly longer term, deputy county attorney pay has grown significantly. A starting attorney under this latest contract will make 53% more than they would under the 2020 contract, which offered $62,301.
According to Amanda Lofink, president of the Cascade County Deputy County Attorneys’ Association, the 2022 passage of the county public safety levy was the catalyst to bring attorney pay to a more competitive level after years of lagging behind. She said that the unions for rank-and-file public safety professionals were behind the push.
“The deputy county attorneys and the sheriff’s deputies worked very hard to educate the public about the levy and our respective workloads and requirements prior to the levy being passed,” Lofink said in an email to MTFP.
She said deputy county attorney pay was behind that of assistant city attorneys for Great Falls and state-level public defenders. A county staff report from 2022 said that deputy county attorneys in Cascade County earned 18% less than state public defenders.
While considering approval of the ballot measure in 2022, Cascade County Commissioner Joe Briggs said that they sometimes lost sheriff’s deputies and attorneys to better-paying positions at the city of Great Falls.
“I am very sensitive to the fact that we are not able to pay as much as the city of Great Falls,” Briggs said. “That represents a problem to us.”
Voters approved the 14-mill levy in 2022. In August 2023, county commissioners approved a resolution to add $10,000 to deputy county attorney base salaries in recognition of the successful public safety levy. In December 2023, commissioners approved a two-year labor contract that brought starting pay up to $89,522.
The new starting salary, approved last week at $95,460, is higher than in many other larger Montana counties. Another county with unionized deputy county attorneys, Yellowstone County, has a starting pay set at $87,500 this year, according to a collective bargaining agreement.
Few other large Montana counties have unionized deputy county attorneys, and those salaries are set by each jurisdiction. Starting salary in Lewis and Clark County is $87,360, according to the human resources department. In Missoula County, starting pay ranges from $75,263 to $82,611, depending on the employee’s duties. In Flathead County, starting attorney pay ranges from $90,679 to $103,818, again depending on duties.
The new collective bargaining agreement in Cascade County ends in 2027 and has annual inflationary pay increases as well as longevity pay based on years of service. That payscale is on page 44 here.
5 Things to Know in Great Falls
A team from Sun River Robotics won an engineering design award at a regional qualifier competition in Butte. The FIRST Tech Challenge event had students design functional robots using computer-aided design and 3D printing technologies. The awarded group, Team 724 ReDNeK, designed and built a robot that shot whiffle balls into a basket 12 feet away. Three Sun River Robotics teams will head to the state championships, including Team 16015 Robo Monkeys and 28809 Rocket Boys.
The Great Falls Symphony’s Christmas show is Dec. 7 at 3 p.m. Music director candidate Brandon Horrocks will be available at 2 p.m. for a pre-concert talk before leading the main show. The orchestra will perform songs like “Sleigh Ride,” as well as selections from films like “The Polar Express” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” Santa will be available for photos. Tickets and show information are here.
The University of Providence will extend an active-duty military tuition rate to Montana law enforcement professionals starting in 2026. The tuition of $250 per credit hour will be good for all undergraduate, graduate and certificate programs at Providence. Full or part-time law enforcement members qualify for the rate. More information is here.
Great Falls Municipal Court has organized a canned food drive on Dec. 5. Defendants who are making monthly payments on fines can bring canned food in lieu of their December payments at a $50 maximum. The drive takes place from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the court office in the Civic Center. The food will be donated to the Great Falls Community Food Bank. More information is here.
The 42nd-annual Great Falls Christmas Stroll is Dec. 5 along Central Avenue downtown. This year’s theme is “A Groovy Little Christmas,” and bell-bottom pants are expected to make appearances. The event features music, food and drinks, as well as visits with Santa Claus. Commemorative buttons are still available at multiple downtown businesses. More information about the buttons and event is here.
Public Notice
The Great Falls City Commission called a special meeting for Monday, Dec. 1, to discuss the city’s ailing parking system. The parking fund has been losing money monthly and requires changes to the program to cut costs, raise revenues and address user complaints. The commission has three options prepared by city staff, according to meeting documents.
For background, you can read MTFP’s story about how the parking program got to this point here.
The first option retains a contract with SP Plus, the company that provides the parking personnel and enforcement. The $35,000 monthly contract is a major expense for the fund. This option increases metered street parking rates from $1 hourly to $1.50 while increasing other fines and fees to keep the SP Plus contract in place on a month-to-month basis.
The second option before commissioners would end the SP Plus contract, which would require city staff to begin staffing and enforcing parking in addition to their regular duties. This option is pitched as a pilot program and would remove coin-operated parking meters, which require personnel to collect. This option also increases street parking rates to either $1.50 or $1.25 per hour, as well as increases to fines and other fees.
Both options eliminate the courtesy ticket, which was a no-fine ticket given to first offenders.
The third option would suspend parking enforcement altogether while the city hammers out a new program. This would cut the SP Plus contract and temporarily cease parking enforcement, which cuts costs but also significantly cuts parking revenue. The city would still need to pay some costs to keep the parking fund afloat, including ongoing maintenance to the parking garages.
More details about all three options are in the meeting agenda materials. The meeting is at 4 p.m. in the commission chambers at the Civic Center.