A series of 2022 property tax assessments by Service New Brunswick involving industrial sites in St. John’s that went up and then went back after objections from the owners are raising concerns about how the agency assesses properties in the city.
“I’ve been watching this for the last five, six, seven, eight years. I definitely don’t think we’re going to get a fair shake,” said St. John City Councilman Gerry Lowe.
“We’re completely surrounded by heavy industry and we pay the highest taxes in this province and that’s not right.”
Updated property assessments for St. John at the end of May show adjustments made by Service New Brunswick since the 2022 notices were first sent to property owners last October. They include nearly $2 million in abatements on a number of industrial-related properties that the agency originally assessed at higher assessed values.
Count. Gerry Lowe stands on a hill overlooking the Irving Oil Ltd. Marine and Rail Terminal. on the east side. Lowe believes Service New Brunswick is undervaluing industrial properties in St. John, costing the city tax revenue. (Robert Jones/CBC)
At Irving Oil Ltd’s marine and rail terminal at Courtney Bay in eastern St John, three adjacent properties covering 11.8 hectares, including the railway station used to unload crude oil from trains, were initially assessed for 2022 at a total worth $6.27 million.
The amount is a $417,900 (seven percent) increase over 2021 assessments, but records show it has since been reduced by $389,100.
Service New Brunswick also reduced the taxable value of various Irving Oil pipelines in St. John by $140,000 and reduced a $94,700 increase in the assessment of property the company owns behind the Dedication Street refinery to a $5,000 increase.
Every $100,000 of assessed value for industrial property in St. John’s is worth $2,565 in tax revenue to the city.
Service New Brunswick and Irving Oil Ltd. did not respond to requests for information about the 2022 assessment amounts and how they were reduced.
But Lowe believes it’s part of a pattern of friendly treatment of industrial properties in the city that keeps their tax bills low, forcing other property owners to pay more than they should
“We get the smoke and the gas and the tractor trailers and the trains honking all night and people are moving to the suburbs because of it,” Lowe said.
“Taxes are assessed and assessments are low.”
An Irving Oil pipeline that feeds the Coleson Cove Generating Station runs along Highway 1. (Robert Jones/CBC)
Industrial property assessments and taxes are usually a sensitive issue in St. John. But it picked up steam this year with the cancellation in May of a long-promised review of Service New Brunswick’s assessment of the Irving Oil refinery.
In 2022, the refinery’s fixed assets are estimated at $104.4 million, an increase of $7.6 million (eight percent) from 10 years ago.
That’s less than a third of the rate of inflation over the same period, even though Irving Oil has spent more than $500 million on repairs and upgrades at the facility since 2014 in maintenance events called Operation Falcon, Operation Red Fox , Operation Sandpiper and Operation Wolf.
In canceling the review of the refinery’s valuation, something Premier Blaine Higgs had personally committed to three years ago, Service New Brunswick Minister Mary Wilson told the legislature the agency did not believe the venture would reveal hidden taxable value.
“Following ongoing discussions with the Service New Brunswick Property Assessment Services team and a review of current information, the government has received assurance that the current assessment of the Irving Oil refinery falls within the acceptable range of value and that a review is not recommended at this time,” Wilson said.
Service New Brunswick Minister Mary Wilson told the legislature in May that a promised review of the Irving Oil refinery assessment has been abandoned by the province. (Jacques Poitras/CBC News)
Lowe called it a disappointment, and he’s more disappointed by the news. The New Brunswick office has dropped some of its other industrial assessments
On Saint John’s Chesley Drive, Ocean Steel had a $257,000 increase over its 2022 estimate, down 60 percent. At the Coleson Cove Generating Station, NB Power won a $371,800 abatement for seabed property it uses as a source of coolant for the plant.
Service New Brunswick increased the assessed value of the six-square-kilometre underwater parcel by $410,000 in 2021 after a “re-examination” of its value, but withdrew most of it this year after an appeal from NB Power.
“We have discussed our concerns with SNB (Service New Brunswick) regarding the significant increase in the 2021 assessment for this water lot,” NB Power spokesman Mark Beliveau wrote in an email.
Service New Brunswick raised the assessed value of an underwater parcel used for seawater access from NB Power’s Coleson Cove Generating Station by $410,500 in 2021, based on its own analysis of its value. She then reduced the estimate by $371,800 in 2022 after objections from the utility company. (Shane Fowler/CBC News)
“Following a series of meetings regarding their methodology for how the land value was arrived at and following an explanation of our own analysis of the property’s value, the SNB has lowered the 2022 value estimate.”
JD Irving Ltd also had valuations increased on some of its properties reduced after the first release of 2022 valuations.
Three properties in west St. John near the company’s Dever Road train station were originally assessed for 2022 at a total of $6.57 million, up $530,800 from 2021. That increase has since been halved.
Service New Brunswick also raised the assessed value of the old Telegraph-Journal building on Crown Street in October by $116,200 to $1.25 million only to agree to a reduction of $331,800. The building is now assessed and taxed at $920,000 .
Ocean Steel on Saint John’s Chesley Drive increased its estimate by $257,000 for 2022, cut by more than half. The property is now assessed for taxes at $4.1 million, a 3.4% increase over 10 years. (Robert Jones/CBC)
Anne McInerney, vice president of communications for JD Irving Ltd, said in an email that the company contested the assessments, which it considered too high, “like any taxpayer”.
She said this year most of the company’s objections were unsuccessful and in the “small number of cases” where reductions were won in St. John, “Service New Brunswick determined the original estimates were too high and changed them accordingly.”
McInerney also noted that the increased valuation at the company’s Reversing Falls pulp mill, which increased by $9.64 million in 2022 as part of a multi-year, $450 million upgrade, “more than offset” the reductions in valuations. earned elsewhere.
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