Saint John’s 2025 operating budget came before the city council this week, and was passed by six votes to three. The budget included a three cent property tax cut. The three opponents to the budget were Joanna Killen, Brent Harris, and Paula Radwan. Radwan said she had hoped to see a 5 cent cut to ease the city’s current “affordability crisis”.
The audio was taken from the recording of the meeting on the City of Saint John YouTube channel.
Property owners in Sackville and Dorchester will see their 2025 tax bills increase on par with their assessment numbers this year, as their proposed tax rate remains mostly flat (dropping slightly by about a half cent per $100 of assessed value). But in the former local service districts (LSDs), residents will not only see increases due to assessments, but also from a proposed increase in tax rate of 5 cents per $100 in assessed value.
Councillor Barry Hicks voiced concerns over the proposed increase at a council meeting on Monday. “The LSDs are going up with no services supplied,” said Hicks on Monday. “I don’t understand how we can keep raising… without giving them some services.”
Treasurer Michael Beal explained that the increase in tax rate for LSDs is an intentional effect of amalgamation, and will continue for years to come.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, New Brunswick has seen its population grow the most in over 50-years. No city in the province has been more impacted than Saint John, with its census metropolitan area population increasing to 138,985 as of July 1st, 2023 (Statistics Canada). Managing the demand this kind of rapid growth places on city infrastructure and services is difficult but necessary.
In part one of our three-part interview series, CFMH News sits down with Mayor Donna Reardon to discuss how Saint John is adapting to these changes, beginning with the evolving role of public transit and what the Mayor learned while she was in Copenhagen attending a healthy urban policy workshop hosted by 8 80 Cities.
On June 24th, Waterloo council voted unanimously to approve the city’s Affordable Housing Property Tax Exemption Program, extending a regional program which was approved earlier this year. After the vote, Waterloo Mayor Doroty McCabe said the program “will make a real difference in our community”.
The program exempts owners of affordable housing units from paying property taxes on the properties, provided that at least 30% of the units in a building are affordable, and that the affordable rents must be provided for a term of 60 years, or the remaining useful life of the building.
This show features clips from the June 24th council meeting, primarily of the single delegate, Sean Campbell the executive director of Union Co-op, an organisation which operates two buildings in Kitchener with affordable units. Campbell supports the new by-law, noting it would make it easier to bring more buildings into community ownership and provide even more “permanent affordability”.
BC Assessments released 2023 property values of over two million properties in January. Now, some Cortes Island homeowners are appealing those assessments.
Cortes Island local Brian Scott is currently going through the process for the second time in two years, having won his first appeal last year. Scott is seeking more answers about the evaluation, he says.
“What I’d really like would be for BC assessments to provide more detail in how they arrive at an assessed value. The [web]site is relatively easy to navigate, but a little sparse on information.”
Deputy Assessor for BC Assessments Maurice Primeau gave a presentation Feb. 13 in Nanaimo to offer insight into the process. He noted that the North Island Region of Vancouver Island did see higher than average increases in value, but did not provide an explanation for the difference.
CKTZ contacted BC Assessments repeatedly for comment but did not receive a response.
Listen to the CKTZ News Update.
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