Fredericton airport gets 2nd year of tax-rate freeze not afforded to many homeowners

For the second year in a row, the Fredericton International Airport is getting a property tax freeze while thousands of residents will see their rate increase again.

"I would say it is totally unfair. It just makes no sense to me at all that they would do that," said Joe Wood, referring to a budget plan adopted by city council last month.

Wood lives in Douglas, which is now part of Fredericton. He is one of the roughly 4,500 residents who were affected by Fredericton's amalgamation in January 2023 as part of province-wide reforms.

Also included in the amalgamation was the Fredericton International Airport.

In the first year after amalgamation, the city raised property tax rates for all of those new residents, and the airport by five cents.

But for this year, council chose to raise the tax rates paid by newly amalgamated property owners by five cents, while freezing the rate paid by the airport. It's set to do the same next year.

Since amalgamation took effect, the City of Fredericton has been working toward bringing the rates paid by the new property owners in line with the city's inside tax rate, said Coun. Greg Ericson, who's also the city's budget and finance committee chair.

That inside tax rate — paid by property owners who enjoy the full suite of city services — will stand at $1.3086 per $100 of assessed property value next year, compared to the rate for amalgamated areas, which will range from $0.6159 to $0.7286 depending on the area, in addition to a provincial road maintenance tax rate of $0.4115.

The airport's property tax rate, however, will stay frozen at $0.5042 — a decision made to help it bounce back from a pandemic-related downturn in passenger air travel, Ericson said.

"This is an economic development measure, essentially," he said in an interview.

"We know from having engaged with the airport, the challenges they're facing reclaiming their market share coming out of COVID, and then balancing the new expenses associated with their renovation, so council made the decision to keep their tax bill stable."

Ericson said even if some residents never use the airport themselves to travel, subsidizing its operations by offering it a lower tax rate is worthwhile to all residents.

"The airport is really an economic driver for most of western New Brunswick and ... to have a high quality airport for the capital city is a very important thing."

CBC News asked the Fredericton International Airport Authority for an interview about the need to keep its property tax rate frozen.