The review of the property tax assessment system in New Brunswick is being taken over by the auditor general.
Retired court of appeal justice Joseph T. Robertson has discontinued his review, pointing to the potential of overlap of his review with an audit by AG Kim MacPherson.
The government says MacPherson told them on May 9 that she was undertaking her own audit of property tax assessment procedures as part of her annual review of the government’s financial statements. MacPherson told Robertson about her intention to do her own audit on May 19. They then met on May 23.
Justice Robertson said, in a letter addressed to the Executive Council Office dated May 29, that MacPherson told him that his review lacked the ‘independence’ she had and asked him to work with her.
Robertson writes that he had “no alternative but to discontinue my review” given the situation. He says that if he had known of the audit and its scope, that he would have not have started the review.
Justice Joseph T. Robertson has discontinued his review of NB’s property tax assessment system, Auditor General Kim MacPherson taking over. pic.twitter.com/W8q0io6Qz6
— Laura Lyall (@LauraLyall) June 5, 2017
The date for the review to be done is now no later than November 30. Robertson’s findings were supposed to be released on August 1.
