For the second year in a row, the city is appealing for the province to put a freeze on property assessments in light of another big increase to property values for the 2017 assessment.
Earlier this month, council approved the motion after B.C. Assessment warned property values in Burnaby and the region could increase by as much as 30 to 50 per cent.
The worry from council, like last year, is that a large number of residents will lose their homeowner grant.
The basic homeowner grant, provided by the province, is $570. Seniors, veterans and people with disabilities may qualify for additional grants of $275 for a total of $845. The amount of the grant starts dropping for properties worth more than $1.2 million and hits zero when the property value reaches $1.35 million.
Last year, 91 per cent of homes in the province fell below the eligibility threshold. But in Burnaby, 78 per cent of residential homes met the lower eligibility threshold, and a recent report from Metro Vancouver suggested less than 50 per cent of homeowners in the region will fail to qualify for the break. The province declined to freeze 2016 assessments last year.
With thousands of homeowners set to lose the grant, local politicians took aim at a familiar foe, the provincial government and an imbalance between the Lower Mainland and the rest of B.C.
More specifically, council noted the school tax, which comes from property tax, has averaged six per cent annually in Metro Vancouver in the last five years, while the rest of the province the increase is zero.
“The whole thing is a big mess,” said Coun. Colleen Jordan. “It just needs a whole complete rework. The only way to accomplish that is draw a line in the sand at last year and take a look at the whole system in the coming months.”
Mayor Derek Corrigan went a step further arguing the province is “ripping off” property owners in regards to taxes against properties in the Lower Mainland, adding people have no control over the value.
He also suggested people don’t get the benefit of that value unless they leave and move out.
“The people who are retired in our community who are 60, 70 years old aren’t moving out, they’re paying and they’re paying from fixed incomes,” Corrigan said, adding it’s easy to blame foreign buyers than address a complicated issue.
Coun. Sav Dhaliwal said the city needs to send a clear message to the government and put pressure for changes.
“This is going to be a lot of hardship on people,” he said of the number of people losing their grant.
Also this month, Metro Vancouver did something similar, calling on the province to make changes to the homeowner grant and tax allocation program “in order to provide a more fair and equitable system of property taxation in B.C.”
