Walnut Grove, Langley Township
Last week’s post on 2015 British Columbia property taxes was shared with the “Maple Ridge Council Watch” Facebook group, and there were comments on that site about gaps in my presentation.
I’ll point out again that there’s no magic lens to provide clarity on the property tax situation. The system is complicated, and the question of whether you or I are receiving value or fair treatment will always be open to debate. Continue reading
In a report on property taxes in Maple Ridge, the District of Maple Ridge incudes a table showing municipal tax charges on the “average house” in cities across the Metro Vancouver region. The table is provided below, minus a few explanatory notes.
There are 21 municipalities in the region, and some of the smaller ones are not shown. Mission, which is adjacent to Maple Ridge, is not part of the Metro Vancouver region. Continue reading
We’re a week away from local elections in B.C. There are complaints everywhere about rising residential property taxes, and political challengers pushing for a tax freeze.
The incumbents respond by calling this a long-term challenge: to flatten out the tax curve, cities must work to attract more business and industry, because businesses pay higher property taxes than residents. In most municipalities, small businesses pay three or four times times as much as residents for each $1,000 in property value; the tax multiplier for major industry goes as high as 14.8 (City of Vancouver) or even 18.4 (Burnaby). Continue reading
Fraseropolis 