Latest news with #ServiceNewBrunswick
CBC
07-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Property assessment freeze in 2026 may force 'difficult decisions,' minister admits
Social Sharing The New Brunswick government says it hopes municipalities will be able to absorb a broad property assessment freeze in 2026 without raising tax rates on property owners. But if municipal budget figures from this year are a guide, that may be a tall order. At a news conference Wednesday, Aaron Kennedy, the minister responsible for Service New Brunswick, said he hopes municipalities will be able to scrape by in 2026 on revenue assessment increases they can generate outside the freeze and by making "difficult decisions" about how they spend money in their communities. "I appreciate their frustration with the announcement, but I think when you take into consideration that sales and new construction and major renovations is excluded from the freeze there are many municipalities that won't have a freeze in their revenues," Kennedy said. WATCH | 'You, as government, need to do something,' province told by homeowners: Will N.B.'s property assessment freeze actually help lower tax bills? 3 hours ago Duration 1:25 New Brunswick Local Government Minister Aaron Kennedy says homeowners angry with their rising property tax bills persuaded the province to freeze property assessments in 2026. But a similar freeze in 2018 was partially nullified when 41 municipalities raised their property tax rates in response. In Saint John, Mayor Donna Reardon said the city has a number of financial obligations that are already fixed for next year, including negotiated wage increases for unionized employees, that cannot easily be managed in the absence of revenue growth. "We have four unions we have contracts with and their wages won't be frozen," Reardon said. "It's difficult." Had a similar freeze been imposed in the current year, Saint John budget documents suggest the city would have had significant problems making ends meet. Saint John did experience about $2 million in increased tax revenue this year from new construction, but that is well short of what would have been needed to finance a $6.8-million increase — or 3.5 per cent — in municipal expenditures and a $2.6-million reduction in the city's tax rate in the 2025 budget. Some combination of higher tax rates and service cuts adding up to $7 million or more would have been needed to make that budget balance under a freeze this year. Kennedy said a $63-million increase in funding to local government's from the province announced in this year's budget should also help soften the blow of the assessment freeze, although he said decisions on how much of those increases each municipality will receive will be made at a later date. In 2018, during New Brunswick's last assessment freeze, 41 New Brunswick communities did eventually raise tax rates to finance their budgets that year.
CBC
18-04-2025
- Business
- CBC
What's open, what's closed on this long weekend in N.B.
Social Sharing The Easter long weekend will mean plenty of closures for retail and city services. Most retail and grocery stores will be closed on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, but open for Easter Monday. Saturday is largely unaffected, but Service New Brunswick will be closed for the entire long weekend. Here's a breakdown of what's open and what's closed on Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday. Retail and grocery Friday, April 18: Sobeys, Walmart and Atlantic Superstore will be closed. N.B. Liquor will be closed. Most Shoppers Drug Mart stores will be open, depending on location. Saint John City Market will be closed. Regent Mall in Fredericton will be closed. Champlain Place mall in Dieppe will be closed. McAllister Place in Saint John will be closed. Sunday, April 20: Sobeys, Walmart and Atlantic Superstore will be closed. N.B. Liquor will be closed. Most Shoppers Drug Mart locations will be open, depending on location. Saint John City Market will be closed. Regent Mall in Fredericton will be closed. Champlain Place mall in Dieppe will be closed. McAllister Place in Saint John will be closed. Monday, April 21: Sobeys, Walmart, Atlantic Superstore will be open. N.B. Liquor will open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Shoppers Drug Marts will be open. Saint John City Market will be open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Regent Mall in Fredericton will be open. Champlain Place mall in Dieppe will be open. McAllister Place in Saint John will be open. Government offices, public services Friday, April 18: Fredericton city hall will be closed. Moncton city hall will be closed. Saint John city hall and offices will be closed. Saint John Transit will not run. Codiac Transpo in Moncton will not run. Fredericton Transit will not run. All public libraries and administrative offices will be closed. Service New Brunswick will be closed. Service centres will also be closed the following day on Saturday, April 19. Service Canada will be closed. Easter Sunday, April 20: Saint John Transit will operate as usual. Codiac Transpo in Moncton will not run. Fredericton Transit will not run. All public libraries and administrative offices will be closed. Easter Monday, April 21: Fredericton city hall will be closed. Moncton city hall will be closed. Saint John city hall and offices will be closed. Fredericton Transit will follow its holiday service hours (hourly service). Saint John Transit will operate as usual. Codiac Transpo in Moncton will operate as usual. All public libraries and administrative offices will be closed. Service New Brunswick will be closed. Service Canada will be closed.
CBC
19-02-2025
- Automotive
- CBC
New Brunswick driver gets a $4,600 fine — for an accident that happened 65 years ago
Social Sharing After a fender-bender before Christmas, 85-year-old Ossie Gildart was told he'd have to take a driver's test. But a surprise was waiting for him when he walked into Service New Brunswick in Bathurst. "He said, 'Mr. Gildart, I'm sorry you can't take the test, your licence has been suspended.'" Gildart was told his licence was suspended until he pays $4,661.91 because of an uninsured accident — an accident that happened in Toronto in 1960. "I just couldn't believe it. I couldn't remember having an accident that I wasn't insured with," he said. Ontario's Motor Vehicle Accident Claims Fund allows people to reclaim damages from an accident with an uninsured driver. But Gildart doesn't recall getting into an accident during his time in Toronto, let alone one where he was uninsured. While living in Ontario, Gildart worked as a service technician so was required to have insurance and to renew his driver's licence every year. When he left Ontario in 1971 to move home to New Brunswick, he received his Class 1 licence, driving trucks for CN Rail. WATCH | A $4,600 bill for a 65-year-old accident has this senior searching for answers: N.B. senior faces claim for a decades-old accident he doesn't remember 1 hour ago Duration 2:00 And in the all the years he's renewed his licence, in Ontario and New Brunswick, this old accident never appeared as an issue. A spokesperson for New Brunswick's Department of Public Safety told CBC News that Service New Brunswick performs a Canada-wide scan for licence suspensions in other jurisdictions. "However, if our investigation proves the reason for suspension is a court-ordered [judgment] more than 10 years old, we have no obligation to another province to suspend or collect the outstanding amount," Geoffery Downey said in an email. Gildart's licence has now been reinstated and his driver's test rebooked but he's still left with the hefty bill from the Ontario Ministry of Transport, although he's being allowed to pay it back monthly. "Two hundred dollars a month is a big slap in the face," he said. "I'll have to do without something to get that." The Ontario Ministry of Public Business and Service Delivery said there are options for those who are facing claims through the program. "If an individual is sued and disagrees, they may defend the action that has been commenced against them," spokesperson Jeffery Stinson said in an email. "If a judgment has been issued, they may seek legal advice to move to have the judgment set aside." Gildart's family is still deciding on next steps, which may include hiring a lawyer to help them fight the charge. "I was never notified by anybody, for anything. I was never suspended. I never had a problem," he said.
CBC
05-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
Thousands of N.B. homeowners have successfully challenged their property assessments. Here's how
Social Sharing Kim Hunter was stunned last year when the assessment on her Saint John duplex arrived and showed a $151,700 increase. "It was absolutely shocking. I was floored," said Hunter of the 56 per cent change. "I couldn't figure out where they actually got that huge increase." Hunter is a professional realtor and immediately doubted her home could be sold for the amount Service New Brunswick had valued it. She prepared a response and filed for a review. After several weeks, the assessment agency accepted there was a problem and lowered the increase on Hunter's home by $54,200. In Saint John, at current tax rates, that reduction will eventually save her $800 on her residential property tax bill. "The whole incident has just nailed it home for me that we are due — so due — for complete overhaul of of the property assessment system in New Brunswick," said Hunter. WATCH | Objection! How to successfully fight a high property assessment: How to win a reduction in your 2025 property assessment 5 hours ago Duration 3:13 Nearly 3,000 New Brunswick property owners successfully challenged their property assessments in 2024. The window for challenging 2025 amounts is open until Feb. 19, and it is possible to win a reduction, if done properly. House prices in New Brunswick have escalated rapidly in the last four years, more than doubling in many communities. That has been pushing up property assessments and property taxes that are based on those assessments. Last month, Service New Brunswick mailed out new 2025 assessment notices to owners of more than 400,000 properties, who now have until Feb. 19 to accept the valuation as accurate or ask for a review. Hunter said if homeowners doubt the assessment is accurate, they should not be shy about questioning it. "I'm just one person, but my advice is to challenge it," she said. Last year nearly 3,000 New Brunswick property owners, mostly homeowners like Hunter, successfully challenged the size of their property assessments, and there are lessons in their success for those considering whether or not to mount their own challenge this year. Jerry Iwanus is a former assessor for Service New Brunswick who has written a book about the province's property tax system, Taxing New Brunswick. Iwanus said the only way for homeowners to win an assessment reduction is to make a convincing case that their own property would not sell on the open market for the amount on their assessment notice. He recommends focusing on that sole reason when asking for a review because, by law, Service New Brunswick cannot consider any other factor. "People put all sorts of stuff in there, like, "my taxes are too high," and that is not a reason to challenge," said Iwanus. "There's only one reason that you challenge your assessment and that is because the assessed value is higher than what you think the market value of your house is." According to Iwanus there are two ways to make that case. The first is for a property owner to show that recent house sales in their neighbourhood are at prices below the values used by Service New Brunswick in the neighbourhood. Alternatively, property owners can try to show their own house has particular problems that would affect its sale price in a way that the assessment is not detecting. Hunter made both arguments in her case. She disputed that the real estate market in her part of the city would allow her to sell her home for the price Service New Brunswick put on it. She also noted that wood clapboard on the ocean-facing side of her home has deteriorated over the years and further eroded the sale value of her property. "I was able to convince [SNB] that I was justified in receiving a significant decrease in value because of some maintenance and repairs that have to be done to my home," said Hunter. "As a real estate agent, I was explaining to [SNB] to get market value, that I would have to do a number of maintenance repairs." Homeowners are ultimately responsible for policing the values applied to their homes. Provincial records show several successful assessment challenges last year were clustered in specific neighbourhoods but even when Service New Brunswick awards multiple reductions, it will not review other similar properties in those neighbourhoods for problems — unless owners ask. On Moore Street, around the corner from Kim Hunter, houses suffered some of the largest assessment increases in New Brunswick in 2024. Four of the 14 properties eventually won reductions and two other properties eventually sold to buyers for less than their assessed values. However, Iwanus said even if that might suggest other homes on Moore Street are overvalued, too, it is up to homeowners to ask for a review and make the case, no matter how obvious, that there is a problem. "If you find that your neighbours have received a reduction in one particularly year, you may want to take a look at doing the same thing next year," said Iwanus.
