Provincial Conservative leader Blaine Higgs is calling on Service New Brunswick Minister Ed Doherty to resign because of the controversy over the property tax assessments.
Higgs cites ministerial responsibility in his call for Premier Brian Gallant to ask for and accept Doherty’s resignation.
An internal Service New Brunswick email revealed officials invented renovations for more than 2 thousand homes because they didn’t have time to have professional assessors check if those houses actually had been renovated or not.
Each of the homeowners saw their assessments increase by more than 20 per cent and because they were deemed to be renovated, a law that caps assessment increases at 10 per cent didn’t apply.
Increased property assessments on campground owners is of concern to the Conservative M-L-A for Gagetown-Petitcodiac Ross Wetmore. He warns higher rates resulting from the higher assessments could mean fewer campers and this will hurt the economy of rural New Brunswick.
Wetmore believes it will just be a matter of time before all RV’s in the province are assessed for property tax regardless of their size.
