It should prove very interesting to see how many of my comments your CBC minions will allow about the evil taxman and lawyers et al today EH Hubby Lacroix and Minister Joly?

 Well now that is interesting CBC did not block a single comment thus far today

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/property-tax-assessment-freeze-announcement-government-new-brunswick-1.4171053

Province to freeze property assessments in 2018 after fumbles this year

58 Comments
Commenting is now closed for this story.


 
Randall Leavitt

Restore confidence? Start firing people; start at the top... this is what is considered accountable and responsible. This is nothing less than fraud.

David Raymond Amos

@Randall Leavitt Methinks Local Government Minister Serge Rousselle should strat reading his emails and my blog and Twitter account ASAP

 

Tom Evans

How about the Auditor General look into all of the one off tax deals that JDI has going on in this province, and push the government to start rescinding them. Maybe then we won't be double taxed on our cottages and rental properties. Including tourism based businesses that rent accommodations. If they want to start fixing the property tax assessments they can include that.

William Roberts

@Tom Evans They only allow me to give you one thumbs up on that.
I have quite a few proxy votes of Irving dependents who don't dare add their names (even as alias) for fear of reprisals.

David Raymond Amos

@William Roberts What kind of Proud Maritimer is too afraid to stand up and be counted?

 

Matt Steele

Hmmmm....what a surprise , and I wonder why . It could have anything to do with the next Provincial election being in Sept. of 2018 ; I guess it is time for Brian Gallant to try and buy our votes with our own taxpayer money . Watch that 14 BILLION Provincial debt spin out of control in 2018 !

William Roberts

@Matt Steele No doubt those Commercial/industrial rates will be spared as well.

David Raymond Amos

@Matt Steele The rule of the Wicked Game are rather simple.

Please allow me to quote an old friend of mine.

"Everything is political and its always about the money"

In my humble opinion all political parties are always looking to the next election as they attempt to make brownie points with the Electorate today.

Mack Leigh

So that is what they are calling it now " FUMBLES ".... I am sure there are many people in jail for the crime of committing " FUMBLES " however it seems that these Gallant Liberals are above the law.

David Raymond Amos

@Mack Leigh
"it seems that these Gallant Liberals are above the law."

Could that be because these Gallant Liberals who are still high in the polls hold the current mandate to make the laws and enforce them?

 

Phil Dawson

So the provincial government will freeze the assessments to try to make us forget about this years fiasco and try to buy of votes in the next election. Meanwhile the municipalities need the extra money so their tax rate will increase. Our property tax bill will still increase next year. They do realize that their is only 1 taxpayer don't they? Either way we have to pay more. This feels more like the shell game at a midway.

David Raymond Amos

@Phil Dawson Your assessment of the taxman is correct.

 

Paul Krumm

Why the bother? The actual tax bill will be the same, either a higher assessment and a lower tax rate or vice versa. The only valid point is that some assessments are unfair. Why are assessments on property calculated on value anyway? (you are penalized for looking after or improving the property). Far better and fairer to set assessment on: services, square footage and frontage.

David Raymond Amos

@Paul Krumm Perhaps you should review what CBC quoted of David Merrithew's words.

"It will force municipalities like Saint John to increase their tax rates. That's what it['s going to do. We've got to pave the streets and pay for police and fire services. It's going to be the same for everyone. Everyone has got to be in the same boat as Saint John is."

 

david herman

"Restore confidence' he has the nerve to say.
Restore confidence in who?, the English?. No dear, those days are GONE. So the only ones left are the french (oh, excuuuuuse me...'francophones'), and it looks like this entire debacle is favouring the french, 'cause they are the only ones who get the jobs to be ABLE TO afford THE SCREW-UPS THIS GOVERNMENT dishes out.

David Raymond Amos @david herman

Methinks the liberals are rather adeptly playing the divide and conquer game by upsetting English folks in the hope of spitting the Conservative vote in order to insure a second mandate.

However French folks are taxpayers too and they also live throughout the province. The lion's share of our Acadian neighbours do not work for the government and they are being abused by the obvious waste and poor services every bit as much as the English folks are. In my humble opinion it is a mistake to under estimate our Acadian neighbours. I know for a fact that not all French folks vote for the liberals in this province or al the other jurisdictions in Canada. In fact many folks do not even bother to vote just like I never did.

I know the following could be called a pipe dream (BTW I don't smoke dope and don't care if the liberals make it legal so they can tax it etc)

Consider this if you perchance to dream on one of the shortest nights of the year. Imagine if the 40 percent of us who are disgusted by the actions of the processional politicians whom our neighbours in New Brunswick keep electing to speak for us did decide to vote next time around and happen to vote for a political party that CBC won't even bother to talk to or about?

Roger Richard

@David Raymond Amos Vous avez raison sur plusieurs points. Ma famille vote conservateur depuis très longtemps. Et oui je suis inquiet de la façon que nos chers politiciens gèrent nos finances. Il y a trop de gens riches dans le gouvernement: que ce soit les libéraux ou les conservateurs ou les hauts fonctionnaires. Ces gens là vivent sur les nuages et ne voient plus la réalité des choses.

 

Roland Godin

Could we have a peoples commission look into the reason we insist proudly, for generations, to elect the best to mismanage public policies, administration, resources and finances...et voilà.

David Raymond Amos

@Roland Godin FYI The liberals appointed just such a fella late last year he is called the Integrity Commissioner

 

Joseph Vacher

Are you not entertained ?!?!?!

David Raymond Amos

@Joseph Vacher Yes I love the circus

 
Christopher J Cusack

They sure fudged, that is for sure. A couple houses I looked at on market are showing tax levy DOUBLED since last year. Something is definitely not right. Almost don't want to buy a house now in fear of unfair tax practices.

David Raymond Amos

@Christopher J Cusack May I suggest that you buy a nice motor home, park in on Crown Land and keep moving it now an then. You will subject to no taxes whatsoever.



Michael Hunt

I think Gallant should call an election now , not wait until September 2018 .

Liberals have support of 53% of decided voters, compared with 30% support for the Tories, CRA finds

wayne guitard

@Michael Hunt CRA. A Liberal party mouthpiece since the McKenna days.

David Raymond Amos

@wayne guitard Perhaps you should Google two names

David Amos Frank McKenna

  

Stewart Campbell

To all you whining municipal politicians, the answer is to curb your spending. For too long you have been riding on the coat tails of never ending increases in assessments and didn't need to raise taxes. Now when you raise taxes because you refuse to stop increased spending, you will be held accountable at election time. Commenters are right...an election ploy by the tennis player

David Raymond Amos

@Stewart Campbell Thats an interesting comment considering what I am reading in CBC about Moncton today N'esy Pas?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/moncton-chief-financial-officer-finances-1.4171676

 
George Matthews

Wait why are communities planning to increase spending and property taxes when the value of the property isn't going up? That seems like it's not an assessment of the value of your land but just a new planned tax hike by the city's. Considering most houses sell for less than assessed value in new brunswick I don't think cities should be mad that they can't force new taxes on their residents.

David Raymond Amos

@George Matthews Its not rocket science All the politicians ever do is raise taxes With the prices of all commodities rising on a daily basis while the Canadian dollar shrinks in value how else can the continue to feed at the trough and ride the gravy train while waiting for fancy pensions to kick in?

Province to freeze property assessments in 2018 after fumbles this year

'This is just stupid,' responds a city councillor from Saint John, which relies on property taxes

By Robert Jones, CBC News Posted: Jun 21, 2017 2:02 PM 

Twenty-three homes on Dieppe's Amirault Street saw their property taxes jump more than 10 per cent in March after Service New Brunswick declared them to have been renovated. A review later found only two had been. (CBC) 

The Liberal government plans to freeze property assessments on hundreds of thousands of properties provincewide in 2018 in response to the continuing controversy over inflated tax bills issued to several hundred homeowners earlier this year.

"Your government is taking the necessary steps to ensure public confidence is restored in the property tax assessment process," said Environment and Local Government Minister Serge Rousselle in a statement released mid-day Wednesday

"Freezing assessments in 2018 will help to ensure fairness and predictability."

Cost falls on municipalities

Although a provincial government initiative, the cost of the freeze will fall heavily on municipalities, which rely on property tax as their primary source of revenue.

'This is an election promise. It will force municipalities like Saint John to increase their tax rates.' -  David Merrithew, Saint John councillor

In Saint John, Coun. David Merrithew, who heads the finance committee, said assessment growth helps the city cope with inflation.

He called the freeze a mistake.

"This is just stupid," he said. "This is an election promise."

"It will force municipalities like Saint John to increase their tax rates. That's what it['s going to do. We've got to pave the streets and pay for police and fire services. It's going to be the same for everyone. Everyone has got to be in the same boat as Saint John is."

The reaction in other communities was equally negative.

On Twitter, Edmundston Mayor Cyrille Simard said he will be looking for more grant money from the province to make up for lost revenue because of the freeze.

"Without compensatory measures, this government decision makes absolutely no sense," Simard wrote.
Petit Rocher Mayor Luc Desjardins responded for himself and the Francophone Municipalities Association.
"This is totally unacceptable," he said.

Environment and Local Government Minister Serge Rousselle says the government is taking necessary steps to ensure public confidence is restored. (CBC)

Merrithew said he could change his mind if the province increased grants to municipalities to make up for the freeze, but there was no indication in Rousselle's initial statement of that happening.

Rousselle did indicate the province would not freeze property assessments that are falling — another problem for municipalities — or assessments that increase because of new construction.

Election in 2018

This year municipalities saw assessments jump $1.1 billion from a combination of new construction and property value escalation. New tax revenue for communities from that increase was $14 million.

The Gallant government is facing a general election in September 2018, and with tax bills issued every March 1, an assessment freeze helps ensure there will be no repeat of the controversy that erupted this year when Service New Brunswick officials struggled to implement a new assessment system.

The roll-out ran into a number of problems, and for reasons not yet explained, ended with assessment managers making up renovation amounts on 2,048 homes to justify large assessment and tax increases on each of them.

Increases have now been rolled back on most of the homes, and Auditor General Kim MacPherson is investigating what went wrong, including claims Premier Brian Gallant's office pushed for the accelerated adoption of the new assessment system before it was fully tested.

 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/serge-rousselle-climate-change-report-details-1.3886866

Environment minister sidesteps questions on costs of climate plan

More analysis needed, but benefits expected to outweigh costs, Serge Rousselle says

By Jordan Gill, CBC News Posted: Dec 08, 2016 11:19 AM AT

Environment Minister Serge Rousselle offered few further details about the government's climate action plan. (CBC)

Environment Minister Serge Rousselle is offering few details about the potential cost to pivot the province to a low-carbon economy, or about how large a carbon-pricing scheme the province could tolerate, a day after the Gallant government rolled out its new climate action plan.

Rousselle said Thursday it's too soon to give precise cost estimates on the climate action plan, entitled Transitioning to a Low-Carbon Economy.

While Graeme Stewart-Robertson, the executive director of ACAP Saint John, said the new plan is "extremely encouraging," how carbon pricing, cap-and-trade and carbon taxing are going to work out is "a big question mark for citizens,"

"People are concerned about what that might mean for them," Stewart-Robertson said.

His environmental organization would like to see the provincial government assuage those fears by implementing a progressive carbon tax that "examines the capacity of citizens to pay within the system."

One solution, he said, could to be to "scrap income tax below a certain threshold and just rely on this as a consumption tax."

"To see that answered in the near future would go a long way toward assuaging fears," said Stewart-Robertson.

Rousselle said the province has "cost estimates of individual elements of the plan and that is being prepared and included in the program proposals taken to government and non-governmental partners," he told CBC's Information Morning Fredericton.

"There's a lot of modeling that has to be done and that has been done, and those are the kind of analysis we are doing."

• Province punts 2 major decisions in new climate action plan 
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• David Coon questions motion by Liberals, PCs to support Energy East

Nevertheless, the environment minister said he believes the climate action program will be worth the cost.
"The benefits are expected to exceed any program costs," Rousselle said.

The plan is being lauded by some environmental groups, but it also pushed off two major decisions, including the future of NB Power's coal-fired power plant in Belledune and whether to pursue a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade system.

Carbon tax or cap-and-trade

The Trudeau government has given provinces until 2018 to adopt a carbon price plan, or the federal government will impose one on them. (Shutterstock / Art Babych)

One of the main pillars of the new plan will be introducing a price on carbon, but the plan doesn't state how the government will do that.

The two most likely options are a carbon tax, where a company is taxed on any carbon emitted over a certain threshold, or a cap-and-trade system, where companies that emit high amounts of carbon can purchase credits from companies that emit less.

• ​Justin Trudeau gives provinces until 2018 to adopt carbon price plan

​Rousselle didn't shed any further light on which system the government would implement, but said it's important that they implement a made-in-New Brunswick solution.

"By 2018, there will be a carbon tax if we do nothing. So we prefer to make a [made-in New Brunswick solution] to make sure we do arrive to the best solution for the province," said Rousselle.

Province's energy future

 

The plan to phase out coal-produced electricity by 2030 has raised questions about the future of the Belledune Generating Station. (NB Power)

Another main component of the plan is accepting a legislative committee's recommendation to phase out coal power by 2030.

The plan, however, doesn't provide any insight on what will happen to NB Power's coal-fired generating plant in Belledune.

If the Belledune plant closes in 2030, this will leave the province with a big hole in its energy-producing ability, making the decision on what to do with the aging Mactaquac dam even more important.
Rousselle offered little in the way of new information.

"NB Power and our government has to look for the best option and right now, the work is being done," he said.

Stewart-Robertson said he's looking forward to seeing how the climate change plan is implemented.
"This is one of the most significant problems, and opportunities, that we're going to face here in New Brunswick in the coming future," he said.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/auditor-general-climate-change-targets-new-brunswick-1.4168892

Legislate reduction targets for greenhouse gas emissions in N.B., says auditor general

Kim MacPherson's annual report finds climate change action items lack timelines, implementation plans

CBC News Posted: Jun 20, 2017 2:44 PM AT 

Greenhouse gas emissions in New Brunswick are not projected to decline much more under the status quo, Auditor General Kim MacPherson found. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press) 

New Brunswick's auditor general is calling on the provincial government to follow the lead of four other provinces, including neighbouring Nova Scotia, and legislate targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions.

Kim MacPherson also wants to see a comprehensive risk assessment for the province to identify priorities and an implementation plan for the 118 actions identified in the province's Climate Change Action Plan, Transitioning to a Low-Carbon Economy.

"Adapting to climate change may be one of the greatest challenges for communities, governments and corporations in the coming decades," MacPherson said on Tuesday, when she tabled the first volume of her annual report in Fredericton.

• Environment minister sidesteps questions on costs of climate plan
• Province punts 2 major decisions in new climate action plan

Although emissions in New Brunswick have declined from their peak in 2001 and are on track to meet the 2020 reduction targets laid out in the province's 2016 action plan, the status quo will not be enough to meet 2030 and 2050 targets, according to her report.

Premier Brian Gallant released the Climate Change Action Plan in December.

"Significant actions are required," MacPherson's report says.

"Overall, we found many action items do not have timelines or implementation plans," or allocated funding, said MacPherson.

Reduction targets that are legislated show a government's commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, her 43-page chapter on climate change says.

"If targets were legislated, it would give government authority to enforce these actions."

Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia have all legislated their reduction targets, the report points out.

Will 'seriously consider' report

Environment and Local Government Minister Serge Rousselle told reporters the government "will seriously consider" MacPherson's recommendations.

"Right now, we are working on doing the carbon pricing and things like that, and in the next two years, we are seriously considering that," he said.

Environment and Local Government Minister Serge Rousselle says the government is focused on carbon pricing. (CBC)

Asked whether he is confident the province will meet the 2030 reduction targets, Rousselle replied, "You can be sure that we'll do everything to make sure that we do."

The Conservation Council of New Brunswick urged prompt action.

Executive director Lois Corbett suggested the Brian Gallant government introduce legislation in time for the next sitting of the legislature this fall.

"And let's hope all parties vote for its speedy adoption," she said in a statement.

'The target of 2030, we're not going to get anywhere close unless we up our game.' - David Coon, Green Party leader

"If we want to catch this boat, the time for the government and NB Power to move is now. Not in 2018. Not 10 years from now."

Green Party Leader David Coon also wants to see legislated reduction targets and details about when and how the government will achieve the goals of the Climate Change Action Plan.

"The target of 2030, we're not going to get anywhere close unless we up our game in helping people save energy and helping people and businesses switch to renewable energy," Coon said. "Those two are the key elements.

"That's how we solve climate change and we have to do it in a way that's affordable for all."

NB Power-specific targets needed

NB Power, one of the province's largest emissions producers, has renewable energy targets but no specific greenhouse gas emissions-reduction targets, MacPherson found.

And the utility faces potential operational risks, given the recently announced federal initiative to phase out coal-fired electricity by 2030, she said, noting Belledune Generating Station currently produces 13 per cent of NB Power's total capacity.

Belledune Generating Station produces 13 per cent of NB Power’s total capacity, but the federal government plans to phase out coal-fired electricity by 2030. (Environment and Climate Change Canada)

The Department of Environment should set specific greenhouse gas emissions-reduction targets for NB Power to ensure provincial targets are achievable, MacPherson's report recommends.

"In addition, impacts and solutions relating to a potential phase-out of the Belledune coal-fired plant should be developed and analyzed," she said, noting New Brunswick is the only province with a coal plant that doesn't have a phase-out plan.

New Brunswick ranks as the seventh highest greenhouse gas emitter per capita, at 17.5 tonnes per person, and eighth highest in total emissions, according to MacPherson's report.

The province's greenhouse gas emissions in 2015 were 14.1 mega tonnes.

The three biggest contributors to the emissions in New Brunswick are electricity generation, industry and transportation, said MacPherson.

The 2020 emissions target is 14.8 mega tonnes.

Vulnerability assessments have been completed in 46 communities, she found.