The property tax gap between high-end and low-end homes in Cranberry Portage will narrow slightly if an RM of Kelsey plan goes ahead.
The RM is proposing to evenly divide its recycling costs across all homes in its jurisdiction starting next year. This would mean that rather than pay for recycling strictly through assessment-based property taxes, all homes would dole out the same fee of about $41 a year.
While that’s unlikely to have a significant impact on tax rates, Rod Berezowecki, a reeve with the RM, says similar fees for other services may be explored in the future.
Berezowecki says there is a need to move away from a taxation system that is based strictly on property values, as some homes in the RM are paying as little as $250 a year while others are charged up to $10,000-plus.
“We’re not seeing it as a fair reflection of what people should be paying for [an] equal level of service,” he said.
In addition to paying for recycling through a uniform fee next year, the RM is proposing fees for fire protection and recreation, but in those cases Cranberry Portage would be exempt because it already operates those services on its own.
Few pointers
Berezowecki says the RM had been talking about the fees for a number of years but “picked up a few pointers” from the City of Flin Flon, which this year enacted a uniform fee for police and firefighters also designed to diminish the property tax gap.
He says the RM’s proposal still needs provincial approval. If that comes through, a final reading of a motion to establish the fees will be held.
Berezowecki says the RM has received about 50 letters of support for the fees, some of which came from homeowners who would pay more under the new system but still view it as a fairer approach.
Cranberry Portage’s recycling fee would go not to Flin Flon, but to The Pas, which processes the town’s recyclables, Berezowecki says.
While the recycling fee would apply to most of the RM, farmland would be excluded since materials from agricultural operations are not generally recyclable in The Pas.
Meanwhile, the RM has also been urging provincial assessors to do a more thorough job of determining the market value of properties.
The RM argues that assessors are focusing on new or renovated homes while ignoring older homes for many years, resulting in assessments that are far below what some homes are actually selling for.
If older homes start getting assessed at higher values, this could further narrow the tax gap between high-end and low-end homes.
