News Release

FREDERICTON (GNB) – The provincial government has released its tax base numbers for communities.

The tax base includes the assessed value of homes and other properties within a local government or rural district. The overall assessment base, provincewide, grew by nearly 11 per cent, or more than $8 billion, over last year.

“The department is providing this data because local governments need it to finalize their budgets,” said Local Government and Local Governance Reform Minister Daniel Allain. “Property owners will start receiving their assessment notices next week.”

With significant increases in many communities’ property assessments, Allain is calling on local governments to look diligently at their budgets and increasing service costs, and attempt to adjust their property tax rate where possible.

Given the impact of high inflation on New Brunswickers, Allain said it is important that all levels of government work together to ease that financial burden.

“We have seen increased costs for everything from fuel to food in the past few months,” said Allain. “While local governments are changing due to reform, they have decision-making powers. We have given municipalities tax room and flexibility when it comes to tax rates, which is what they asked for.”

Tax reform is a key part of the government’s plan to modernize New Brunswick’s local governance system, and several steps have been taken since last year’s release of a white paper. The government has announced provincial property tax reductions, which began last year. Local governments can compensate for this by increasing the tax rate on non-residential properties by up to 1.7 times the local rate.

The government will unveil its new funding mechanism for equalization next week. Allain said this will result in stability and predictability for years to come.

The 2023 tax base for all New Brunswick communities is available online.