N.B. Francophone leaders seek compensation over assessment freeze

New Brunswick's municipal leaders agree a recent property tax assessment freeze enacted by the province puts them under significant financial pressure, but while Francophone leaders are calling for immediate action, the mayors of the province's largest cities are striking a more moderate tone.

The Francophone Association of New Brunswick's Municipalities (AFMNB) met on Friday in Miramichi to talk about the estimated $14 million loss municipalities provincewide will face in 2018.

The group came up with three recommendations: 

• financial compensation from the province; 
• an emergency meeting with the provincial government to discuss solutions
• that the AFMNB be included in the committee overhauling the property assessment system 

Luc Desjardins, mayor of Petit-Rocher, said he doesn't want to be left holding the bill for the province's mistake.

"We're asking to have a program…to compensate the municipalities for these losses, because our expenses are fixed.

"We're not allowed to have deficits but our expenses are raising every year and if we don't have more revenues through the assessment…we're going to be short changed."

Desjardins said the way things sit at the moment, many municipalities are facing tough choices.

"Somehow we'll have to have the taxpayer pay, and the only way would be to reduce services, or else to raise the tax rate."

53 municipalities are members of the AFMNB, many of them smaller communities.

But the province's three largest centres did not echo the group's sentiment.

Moncton Mayor Dawn Arnold, Fredericton Mayor Mike O'Brien and Saint John Mayor Don Darling met in Moncton Friday. They released a statement expressing a need for better understanding and a call to work together.

"Mayors Arnold, O'Brien and Darling expect a solution to be a win-win for the province and for the municipalities," read the statement.

The mayors refused to answer questions from the media following the meeting.

The press release did not contain the language used in the AFMNB's statement calling the province's property tax assessment fumbles "a fiasco" and the ensuing freeze "a crisis."

When the freeze was implemented last week, Environment and Local Government Minister Serge Rousselle said the intent was to "ensure public confidence is restored in the property tax assessment process," but  Desjardins said smaller communities are on the losing end of the deal.

While major renovations, new buildings and real estate deals will be exempt from the tax suspension, Desjardins argues smaller communities have fewer of these types of transactions.