Luke Barton is one of 9,863 New Brunswick property owners who have filed an appeal on their 2024 property tax assessments.
It’s the highest number of request for reviews since 2017, when a new assessment formula was fast-tracked and caused some assessments to balloon.
Barton’s assessment jumped from $255,200 in 2021, when he bought his home, to $541,900 in 2022.
This year, it jumped from $660,000 to $795,600.
It means the tax bill has more than doubled, from $3,227, to $7,775.
“We've grown grass. That's really all that looks different from space and as far as, like I said, single storey house, no basement. So I just don't know where they're getting the numbers from,” he said.
The home sits on an unpaved road, which Barton clears of snow. He does receive garbage removal services, but doesn’t feel anything has changed enough to warrant the increase.
Saint John mayor Donna Reardon says she’s hearing more complaints this year than in the past.
That’s despite the city managing to reduce its tax rate again this year, now down 20.5 cents in three years. It’s something she didn’t think would be possible just a few years ago, but since Saint John has been able to stabilize its finances, those reductions have become reality.
But because of provincial legislation, that cut is shared by all property owners, including industrial businesses.
She would love to see a system that’s fair to all property owners.
“It's time for a lot of them to be looked at and modernized. I know it's a big job and I know that it's been promised because they did municipal reform initially,” she said. “And so going forward, tax reform would follow that. But I know the scope is huge with that as well. But I would like to see some things happening, at least some of these smaller asks that we have like considered going forward.”
Liberal leader Susan Holt is calling for the province to halt its use of the “cost of assessment” fee, a charge of $19.40 per $100,000 of assessed value.
She also agrees with Reardon that a review of the entire system is needed.
“It's time for property tax reform. We hear from New Brunswickers all over the place that they don't have clarity on how the system works, how their properties were assessed, what it went into that, and then the actual property tax system isn't allowing us to build the kind of communities and societies we want. We need to look at more categories for property taxes,” she said.
Out of the 9,868 requests for review – or appeals – 8,593 will get a formal review for this tax year, according to a spokesperson for Service New Brunswick.
The province attributes the increase in appeals to a “strong real estate market, as well as an increased awareness and a better understanding of the request for review process by property owners.”
But Service New Brunswick reminds property owners that they’re still responsible to pay the full amount of their property tax by the deadline – even if they’ve submitted an appeal.
Number of appeals each year:
- 2016: 7,156
- 2017: 18,593
- 2018: 3,956
- 2019: 5,439
- 2020: 5,941
- 2021: 5,368
- 2022: 8,983
- 2023: 8,971
- 2024: 9,863 (so far)
Source: Service New Brunswick
