Two days after Premier Brian Gallant said New Brunswick was getting out of the property assessments business, the New Brunswick Union (NBU) has shot back at claims that assessors were to blame for the more than 2,000 property owners who had been allegedly given improper and inflated tax bills.
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“First and foremost, the blame for this problem does not sit with the assessors,” wrote Susie Proulx-Daigle, the NBU President, in a statement on Wednesday. “Assessors had nothing to do with the development and deployment of the formula the premier spoke about at his press conference.”
The press conference on Monday saw the premier announce he would introduce a new independent agency to oversee property assessments. Gallant said the issue arose after “arbitrary formulas” were used to estimate property values in 2011 and 2017.
“Although Service New Brunswick employees may have had good intentions in applying arbitrary formula as in 2017, they did it to reduce the assessment of the computer-generated assessment,” Gallant said.
Watch: New Brunswick getting out of property assessment business following controversy: premier
On Wednesday, Proulx-Daigle contested that claim, writing that the elected officials who decided to fast-track an automated assessment system should take responsibility for their actions.
Proulx-Daigle said the Premier’s office overrode the original plan to phase in the new system over a two to three year period. That time would have been used to familiarize staff and allow them to better understand the program.
“There are a lot of legitimate questions being asked by media and New Brunswickers alike and government has some of the same questions,” wrote Sarah Bustard, acting director of communications for Service New Brunswick, in an email.
Bustard says that the recently announced independent commission will help answer some of the questions. They expect the commission’s findings in August.
—With files from Adrienne South and Sean Previl, Global News