qathet Regional District (qRD) finance committee members were provided an overview of property assessment by a BC Assessment delegate.
At the May 3 finance committee meeting, Maurice Primeau, deputy assessor, residential Vancouver Island, outlined the function of BC Assessment and the 2023 assessment roll.
Primeau said BC Assessment is a crown corporation established in 1974, operating independently of taxing function and politics. He said the corporation provides a list of properties, identifying ownership, values, classification and exemptions for all British Columbians who own property.
BC Assessment represents more than 2.16 million properties, with a total value of $2.72 trillion, which provides more than $8.3 billion in property taxes for local governments and communities in BC, according to Primeau.
Primeau said the way BC Assessment values properties is it takes market value as of July 1 each year.
“We look at market value using comparable analysis to support our values, and then we also have some properties based on legislated rates set by cabinet, such as utilities, farms and managed forests,” said Primeau. “BC Assessment functions independently of taxing authorities and does not set property tax rates. An individual’s property assessment determines their share of property taxes for the property class in which they fall.
“BC Assessment’s function is to ensure the property tax burden is distributed equitably among similarly situated taxpayers. The assessed value, times the tax rate, equals the taxes payable.”
Primeau said there is a myth that if an assessment has gone up 20 per cent, that taxes are also going to go up 20 per cent. He said if a property owner’s assessed value is lower than the average, taxes are likely to decrease, if it’s similar, likely, taxes do not change and if it’s higher than the average change, taxes are likely to increase.
In qathet Regional District in 2023, Primeau said there were 12,591 properties assessed, with a total value of $7.521 billion, which is up 17.31 per cent from the 2022 roll. He said in the regional district, residential classification makes up about 91 per cent of the entire assessment roll.
Primeau said for the completed assessment roll, in City of Powell River, in 2023, the median value of increase for a single-family dwelling was 16 per cent, down from 39 per cent in 2022. In Electoral Area A, the median increase was 15 per cent, in Electoral Area B, 22 per cent, Electoral Area C, 20 per cent and Electoral Area D, 25 per cent.
For commercial properties, increases in the median across the board range between 10 and 11 per cent.
“For 2022, we saw a big demand for residential properties across Vancouver Island,” said Primeau. “There was an almost 10 per cent increase in single-family dwelling sales volume. It was the first time I saw almost 5,000 single-family dwelling sales over $1 to $2 million, north of the Malahat, and 620 sales over $2 million last year. These are absolutely staggering numbers.”
qathet Regional District, including City of Powell River and electoral areas A, B, C and D, are part of BC Assessment’s Vancouver Island region.
Primeau said the BC Assessment website at bcassessment.ca provides many resources.
City director Cindy Elliott said the city taxes the Catalyst Paper Tis’kwat mill that is now closed, and she asked about the assessment.
Primeau said BC Assessment has been in consultation with the city’s chief financial officer (CFO) to go through the classification, the values, and the changes happening with the property.
“From BC Assessment’s side, we’ve valued based on the information we have right now,” said Primeau. “There are other elements that need to come into play from the owners of the mill site. When that information does come to us about next steps, then we’ll revisit conversations with the CFO around how we are going to move forward with valuation.”
