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2 parties would let cities share in tax revenues from heavy industry, 3rd gathers data
CBC
New Brunswick political party leaders all had different answers Monday night when asked where they stand on letting Saint John get a share of property tax revenues from heavy industry.
Progressive Conservative Blaine Higgs, Liberal Susan Holt and David Coon of the Green Party appeared before Saint John city council in the lead-up to the provincial election later this fall.
They took questions from councillors on municipal fiscal reform, mental health and housing, among other topics,
In a position paper prepared for the occasion, the city pledged support for reallocating heavy industry property tax revenues to the municipalities in which they are generated to support local services and infrastructure.
Holt said a Liberal government would aim right away for fiscal reform but would aim higher than a transfer of heavy industrial tax revenue.
"That will be a piece of it," she said. "But I think it becomes more powerful when we do a complete property tax overhaul that tackles assessment.
"We need to be getting the right assessment values for our properties and assessing the right things, whether that's machinery and equipment or otherwise."
Holt said it would take more than a "piece of industrial property tax" to give municipalities what they need, and she would hope to have a system in place by the end of 2025.
The Higgs government brought in local governance reforms in early 2023, creating or expanding multiple municipalities. The changes followed a white paper in late 2021 that said these reforms would be followed by fiscal reform.
The intent was to make changes related to finances before Jan. 1, 2025.
In Saint John on Monday, Higgs turned questions about municipal reform over to Local Government Minister Glen Savoie, who did not make a commitment but told councillors the province hopes to have finished gathering data by next year.
He said he's heard Mayor Donna Reardon talk about a "deficit" of $300 million in needed infrastructure and said he wants to "understand that right across the province."
Once the infrastructure picture is better understood, his party can address reform.
"Do we need to look at industrial taxes being flowed to the municipality from where they come? Those are all questions that will be answered through that process."