Real Property Assessments

Property Assessments -- the process of establishing a dollar value on real property for tax purposes -- has been the subject of considerable controversy among municipalities over the past number of years. Councils claim that the assessment roles are out of date and often they complain to their MHA's and others that this is costing them considerable dollars in revenue. While there was some substance to these arguments in past years, considerable progress has been made recent time in bringing the assessment roles up to date.
The current fee for assessments is .0002 or two tenths of one mill times the total taxable value of the assessment role for each municipality.
To increase cost recovery this year, the Department is putting in place a minimum fee per parcel. What it means, basically, is that municipalities paying less than $10.50 a parcel will now pay a rate of $10.50. At the present time, the range of municipal contributions is from a high of $24.30 for a parcel to $0.95 per parcel and the change in structure will ensure greater consistency with respect to
assessment fees.
In addition, Government will be reviewing the future direction of its assessment service with the view of divesting itself of this responsibility if deemed to be supported by the municipalities affected. In this regard, Government will be releasing shortly a consultation paper on the property assessment services.