Canfor Appealing Assessments

Tuesday, April 27, 2010 04:00 AM

Prince George, B.C. – The City of Prince George may have to issue a tax refund to Canfor if the company is successful in its appeal of its assessment.

Every year, the City has to set the tax rate which will be used to collect the money needed for the City’s annual operations.

The tax rate and the decision on how much each classification of property will carry, are based on the annual assessed values of properties.

Councillor Cameron Stolz says there is a bit of a challenge coming to the Finance and Audit committee because of the changes in the light and heavy industrial sectors. For instance, he says the changes to light industrial, (loss of about $3 million dollars) happened because of the expiration of the B.C. Rail lease on 6 properties. That change will mean the City's tax collection has dropped $60 thousand dollars in that particular area.

On Major Industry, Canfor is appealing the assessments on its P.G. Pulp and Intercon property assessments. There is an outstanding appeal from 2009 and while there is no telling when that appeal will be resolved. If the appeal is granted, the City will have to issue a refund to Canfor. That would also mean a refund would be due on 2010 as the appeal would carry forward to this year.

There are nine classifications, from residential (which carried 53% of the tax burden last year) to heavy industry which carried about 17% of the taxation load.

In a presentation to Council, Deputy Assessor Christopher Whyte, and Acting Deputy Assessor John Castle advised Council on how the assessments have changed over the past year.

As the chart below indicates, there have been some changes in the overall values. Keep in mind, the current assessments are based on values as of July 2009.

The Finance and Audit Committee plans to come back to Council on May 10th with tax setting options.

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Posted on Tuesday, April 27, 2010 04:00 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: He spoke on April 27 2010 7:16 AM

I laugh, you can not give one bunch a tax conssession and not the other. Thank you Canfor, for teaching these dim wits at city hall this simple rule.

Tax them, tax them all equally. Everyone benefits from having sewer, water and roads equally, thus everyone should pay for their portion of it, fairly.

Posted by: Palopu on April 27 2010 8:05 AM

He spoke. Canfor is not connected to the Citys water and sewer as far as I know, however I could be wrong.

Posted by: pgguru on April 27 2010 8:25 AM

60g less for the city hmmmmmmmm,maybe they will increase the taxes again!

Posted by: acrider54 on April 27 2010 9:59 AM

Just lay those taxes on the working person. We are always covering the big corporations butts.

Posted by: metalman on April 27 2010 10:29 AM

The three Canfor pulpmills in P.G. each have their own water and sewer systems, independent of the City. The City maintains the roads that lead to the mill gates.
metalman.

Posted by: who? on April 27 2010 11:14 AM

maybe we all should appeal out assessments...

Posted by: He spoke on April 27 2010 11:32 AM

yeah, we should give them a break on the taxes, since they supply their own water and sewer services. I bet they maintain the cost of the roadways also

Posted by: gus on April 27 2010 11:36 AM

We could all appeal them. It will cost the provincial taxpayers plenty of money to do so.

It is one thing to appeal the BC assesments, it is another thing to lobby the City for a change in the comparative rates the different property classes are charged.

That is where the residents of this City could have a case industry pays one of the lowest rates in the province. Those owning residential class properties are thus paying a proportionately higher percentage of the tax dollar than many other communities in BC.

Posted by: newly retired on April 27 2010 11:45 AM

Maybe if the City hadn't in the last year purchased PG Hotel, Norgate Auto Body, Bamboo Retaurant, CKPG Building the owners would still be responsible for the taxes assessed on these building wether they were still in business or not. Now the City has lost all this revenue. Too bad City, eat your losses and don't expect the residence of Prince george to swallow another tax increase. I hope Canfor wins their appeal.

Posted by: pgguru on April 27 2010 4:40 PM

pg taxes are getting way to high for this little city.we need help?

Posted by: mwk on April 27 2010 9:14 PM

I think some people forget that Canfor uses the roads, Fire Departments, electricity, etc etc. Should they pay their fair share like the rest of us. I think so. I believe the only reason they are appealing these tax assessments is because West Fraser has been doing it in places such as Kitimat etc.

To Canfor it's just another cost cutting option. If they can get their rates reduced then they can turn around and use that money somewhere else. It's not rocket science.

Are property taxes too high in PG....compared to what? Kamloops or Kelowna. Trust me, your not paying higher rates than those cities. I still think we don't have it too bad. I think the city is starting to look a little better. Even downtown is starting to change...wow!!

Posted by: gus on April 28 2010 2:22 AM

Here is Nanaimo's city web site showing the easy with which people can access the tax information and can actually ask questions on line. Imagine a city actually being that open about our business!!!

http://www.nanaimo.ca/EN/main/departments/Finance/budget-and-financial-reports/budget-information.html

Click on the "budget forum" link in the left column and you will be taken to an internal blog to ask budget questions. That's what I call service. But then, their taxes are higher so they can expect more. :-)

View comparative property tax stats for BC municipalities here.
http://www.cd.gov.bc.ca/lgd/infra/tax_rates/tax_rates2009.htm

If you look at the charges on a comparative house you will see that of 160 communities in BC, Prince George is #69 down the list from highest to lowest.

For communities above 50,000 population, PG has the lowest tax for a representative house. The value of the house is shown in brackets.

PG $2,867 ($209,060)
Chilliwack $2,893 ($334,442)
Nanaimo $3,156 ($323,563)
Kelowna $3,340 ($462,138)
Kamloops $3,424 ($311,076)
Abbotsford $3,497 ($386,263)
Surrey $3,782 ($584,766)
Burnaby $4,027 ($692,205)
Richmond $4,083 ($663,933)
New Westminster $4,371 ($566,628)
North Vancouver $4,777 ($847,575)

Total property taxes and charges, PG is the 15th on the list. The figure in brackets is the tax and charges collected per person based on BC stats population for 2009

PG $116.2 million ($1,559)
Nanaimo $144.7 million ($1,718)
Kamloops $150.5 million ($1,730)
Abbotsford $193.1 million ($1,421)
Kelowna $203.4 million ($1,684)

Do we want to have some of the amenities that Kamloops, Nanaimo and Kelowna have? Such as better kempt grounds? Guess what, it costs money.