Jason Stephen addresses the media after releasing the NBREA report on taxation.

The New Brunswick Real Estate Association (NBREA) has released a discussion paper calling for changes to the property tax system, and is appealing to provincial political candidates and leaders to make property taxation a primary election campaign issue.

“Over a six-year period, governments have increased their tax base by $15.6 billion on the backs of property owners in this province,” says Jason Stephen, chair, NBREA Government Relations Committee. “We strongly believe that, for an issue directly affecting the quality of life of New Brunswickers, property taxation must now become a government priority.”

NBREA’s paper, A Discussion About Property Taxation in New Brunswick, addresses the imbalance of the methods currently used to calculate property value assessments, the system’s impact on fixed income residents, and the issue of double taxation, which affects renters and those owning more than one property. 

 The paper indentifies four key recommendations for property tax system improvements:

• simplifying property value assessment calculations; 

• making the system easier to understand; 

• addressing urgent issues for fixed- and low-income residents; and

• eliminating double taxation on non-owner occupied property owners.

“The property tax system, in its present form, is unpredictable, complicated, unclear and inconsistent across the province,” says Stephen. “Some people own properties that haven’t seen an increase in assessment or taxes whatsoever, where others receive assessments that have skyrocketed by hundreds of percentage points. In fact, more than 8,700 appeals were filed in 2010. This imbalance is unfair and it must be addressed.”

 The paper also examines the Accountability Mechanism designed by the government in 2010 to help the province and municipalities continue to experience growth in annual property tax revenues. NBREA says the system fails New Brunswickers in six areas:

• It does not provide the desired level of transparency;

• Property taxes are not completely dependent on real property values or trends; 

• It does not account for major annual variations in the value of property, or the amount of new construction; 

• It relies on new construction for a major portion of annual increases in municipal revenues; 

• It puts property owners in the middle of a jurisdictional battle between the provincial government, the municipalities and the local service districts; and

• It does not address the issue of double taxation.

“If changes are not made soon the economic prosperity and growth of the province may be at risk,” says Stephen. “Fixed- and low-income residents may struggle to maintain home ownership, renters may unfairly carry the burden of a negative tax shift and first-time buyers may choose not to buy at all. The time has come to fix what’s broken in this province. Whoever forms government after this election will be absolutely required to take a leadership role in solving this growing problem. New Brunswickers deserve better.”