Provincial 'cost of assessment' fee adding millions to N.B. property tax bills

New Brunswick property tax bills continue to arrive in the mail across the province this week and increasingly questions are being asked about a growing charge that the province adds near the bottom of the invoice.

Shaun Underhill received his bill this week and almost missed the $42.78 amount listed as a "cost of assessment" fee.

"I didn't even know the assessment fee was a thing, to be honest," said Underhill.

The charge is easily overlooked. It's a minor element in the big dollar amounts found in every property tax bill, but in recent years it has become the fastest growing piece.

The fee is set in legislation at $19.40 for every $100,000 that a property is assessed to be worth and has been allowed to remain at that level as property values have soared.

In some cases that has allowed the fee to double in cost to homeowners in some communities in just three years.

Underhill lives in Nashwaak where property values have not jumped as much as in other centres. His assessment fee is up 29 per cent since 2020 but he can see how it would escalate much more rapidly for others.

"This fee is a percentage of your assessment. It's not just some flat rate so I would imagine some people's fees have increased quite a lot," said Underhill.

The New Brunswick government has been encouraging municipal governments not to take full financial advantage of escalating assessments and where possible to lower charges including property tax rates to homeowners in the face of rising property values. But the province has not done the same with the cost of assessment fee.

In his state of the province address in January, Premier Blaine Higgs made a point of addressing the problem of rising assessments causing property taxes to go higher and suggested governments should do what they can to disconnect the two.

"None of us want to pay more taxes," said Higgs.

"I want to take a moment and sincerely thank those municipalities who looked at the costs they are incurring, measured it against the extra money and were still able to lower property taxes for each homeowner."

But the cost of assessment fee has seen no downward adjustment. Instead it has soared equally alongside property values which in some neighbourhoods has been by a significant amount 

On streets like Moncton's Candice Lane, houses assessed for as low as $160,400 in 2021 are valued in 2024 as high as $336,300.