The New Brunswick government says it plans to tell each municipality across the province how much it should raise property taxes every year as it tries to address spiking bills.
The government said its tax reform legislation tabled Wednesday will help prevent ballooning tax bills that homeowners have received in recent years as their property values have increased.
Officials say the government would publish a tax rate for each municipality based on the consumer price index, population growth, salaries and commercial building costs. The ruling Liberals said the new approach ties property taxes to a municipality’s service needs, as opposed to property values.
If local councils decide on a different rate from the number issued by the province, they would be required to explain their decision on the property tax bills sent to residents, officials said.
Local Government Minister Aaron Kennedy said the bill will put pressure on municipalities to keep tax bills lower. Property tax increases had become so severe the Liberal government placed a one-year freeze on assessment values to address the issue.
“New Brunswickers have told us that they are worried about unpredictable property tax bills, unclear processes for property assessments and confusion over where the money from their property taxes is being spent,” Kennedy said.
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“These amendments will help create a more stable, predictable and transparent property tax system that New Brunswickers can trust and local governments can rely on.”
Brittany Merrifield, mayor of Grand Bay-Westfield, N.B., said the province’s proposed stabilizer rate could limit local decision-making while adding extra work.
“We’re just concerned that it’s going to reduce municipal autonomy by essentially creating another level of bureaucracy for local governments to jump through in order to adopt those budgets,” said Merrifield, who is also president of the Union of Municipalities of New Brunswick.
Merrifield said the government will need a second phase of reform because the changes introduced Wednesday don’t go far enough in addressing broader financial challenges facing New Brunswick’s cities and towns.
For example, she said, New Brunswick municipalities have an extreme reliance on property tax revenues that puts increased pressure on residents and businesses.
She cited a 2024 fiscal report commissioned by her organization that found property tax collections accounted for 84 per cent of all municipal revenue in the province, far higher than in other provinces such as Alberta, where that number is 44 per cent.
“We’ve been advocating for diversification of revenue for quite some time now … if we’re looking at affordability for New Brunswickers, that’s really the solution,” the mayor added.
The bill isn’t all negative, Merrifield said, saluting the proposal to transfer industrial property taxes to municipalities and allowing cities to impose a levy on unused land.
However, many of the specifics, say officials, will be worked out through the regulation process.
Opposition Leader Glen Savoie said he’ll have to see how the proposed legislation is worked out in regulations to see its true impact. He said what the governing Liberals say and the practical impact of their bills can differ.
“We’ll have to look at the bill and see what we can do to make sure that it does actually do what it purports to do,” the interim Progressive Conservative leader said.
The Liberal government first launched an effort to overhaul the property tax system in New Brunswick last year and said it consulted with municipal leaders, advocacy groups and the business community throughout the process.
They have zero rights to interfere in municipal affairs unless the are breaking provincial laws. Just wait soon enough they’ll have to raise them because this moron is spending us further into the ground.
Edmonton has been stuck with tax & spend liberal mayors since 2004.