ATLANTIC CANADA ASSESSMENT: JURISDICTIONAL UPDATE

Nicole McAninch A.I.M.A., A.I.C.

Property assessment plays a crucial role in determining property taxes and ensuring fair distribution of tax burdens among property owners. In Atlantic Canada, the provinces of New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island each have their own systems for property assessment. This jurisdictional update provides a summary of the current state of property assessment in Atlantic Canada.

New Brunswick:

In New Brunswick, property assessments are conducted by Service New Brunswick on an annual basis. Changes are underway in an effort to the modernize property assessment system in New Brunswick. Notably, effective 2025, we are looking at a proposed amendment to the base date legislation. Historically, this is the only jurisdiction where the base date is January 1st of the effective taxation year, however this legislation is about to change, whereby the base date for the 2025 tax year will be set to Jan 1, 2024. Theoretically, this change should provide for a higher level of accuracy in values as the assessment authority should have a greater opportunity to gather and analyze data in preparation of the roll. With this, Service New Brunswick will no longer be issuing assessment notices in October, and all property assessment notices were mailed out to owners on January 15th, 2024This reassessment amounts to an overall assessment base increase of $8.4 billion across the province.

New Brunswick is also unique in that it is the only jurisdiction that continues to work without a legislated equity provision, inherently creating a lack of fairness for rate payers in the province. While there appears to be no plan to add such provisions, this is a topic of discussion among stakeholders.

The 2022 implementation of the “spike protection” mechanism, designed to mitigate the impact of market value increases on property assessments has been approved for 2024. In years where tax rates have increased, as municipalities now have the authority to set ratios anywhere between 1.4 - 1.7; resulting in increased rates in many jurisdictions this mechanism ensures that property assessments do not reflect the full extent of market spikes, capping taxable assessment increases at 10% of the previous years’ value. In an economy that has seen a strong post pandemic resurgence and increased rates, this is a welcome tax mitigation tool for rate payers across the province where values in recent years have seen spikes well beyond the 10% mark in most classes. Vacant land, recently sold properties and new construction or significantly renovated properties are excluded.

Nova Scotia:

Property assessments in Nova Scotia are established and maintained by the Property Valuation Services Corporation (PVSC). Property assessments are returned annually for over 638,000 properties with a valuation base date of the year preceding taxation. The base date for the 2024 assessment cycle is January 1, 2023. Nova Scotia’s economy has seen a steep increase in property values over the past couple years, largely stemming from the housing boom in 2021 resulting from the pandemic, and subsequent resurgence in the commercial/ industrial sectors. In 2022, the residential sector saw assessment increases at average of 20% over previous years’ assessments and commercial properties about 7%. Property owners received their 2024 property assessment notices in the mail on January 8th, and have 30 days to appeal the new value.

Perhaps the most notable change in recent years to property assessment and taxation policy, is Halifax Regional Municipalities (HRM) introduction of new tax rate zones. This initiative aims to address and redistribute tax burdens for business owners in various centers across HRM. This strategy shifts from the previous Urban, Suburban and Rural general tax rates to 5 different geographical zones at tiered rates based on 4 value thresholds. While the program faces criticism, its intent is to alleviate the tax burden from small business to larger scale operations, although some see this as an inequity among owners.

Newfoundland and Labrador:

Newfoundland and Labrador’s property assessment is managed by two separate assessment authorities. St. John’s Assessment for all properties located in the City of St. John’s on a 2-year cycle. All other property in the province is assessed by the Municipal Assessment Agency (MAA) on an annual cycle.

The City of St John’s published their values for the upcoming 2024-2025 taxation cycle this past summer with the base date being 2 years prior to the taxation year, at January 1, 2022.

For the remainder of the province, the market values are set by MAA at January 1 of every calendar year. Notices are mailed out in June of each year, if a ratepayer wishes to appeal their assessment, they must do so within 60 days from the date printed on their assessment notice.

Prince Edward Island:

In Prince Edward Island, property assessments are conducted by the provincial government’s Taxation and Property Records division. The taxable value assessment is the assessment used to determine annual property taxes.

Owner-occupied residential properties are eligible for the owner-occupied residential assessment program. This program serves to protect Islanders from significant year-over-year assessment increases by capping the taxable value assessment to increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), or 5%, whichever is lower. Under the owner-occupied residential assessment program, the taxable value assessment will not exceed the market value assessment.

For all property other than owner-occupied residential property, the taxable value assessment is the market value assessment. Year over Year assessment increases here remain low, with most appeal results generated from an equity standpoint.