New Brunswick is now ready to deliver the delayed property tax cuts it first promised two years ago. The newly released provincial budget confirms the initial decrease will show up on 2022 tax bills, collectively saving residential and non-residential ratepayers $45 million.
After COVID-19 derailed the envisioned 2021 launch of a four-year phased reduction — to ultimately eliminate 50 per cent of the tax burden for residential landlords and provide a 15 per cent discount for other residential and non-residential property owners — the initiative has been scoped into a three-year period. Ernie Steeves, New Brunswick’s Finance and Treasury Board Minister, projects a $112 million province-wide reduction by the 2024-25 fiscal year.
“This important tax initiative will support the development of additional units in the province and provide tax relief to landlords, many of whom are facing significant assessment increases as a result of the vibrant real estate market,” he asserted in yesterday’s budget speech.
For residential landlords, the first installment of property tax relief will come in sync with a one-year restriction, retroactive to January 1, 2022, capping allowable rent increases at no more than 3.8 per cent. The new budget also announces pending legislation that would require landlords to show cause before terminating residential tenancies and would enable displaced tenants to claim compensation where such causes are not provided.
In unveiling those measures, Steeves explained they are meant to “ensure that tenants are protected and benefit from the property tax reduction”, while reiterating the provincial government is “confident that the market will catch up with demand”, in part with the help of the property tax cuts.
“The vacancy rate continues to fall and rents continue to climb,” he said. “Our government acknowledges that more needs to be done for renters.”
The 2022-23 budget also announces: a $6.3 million boost to provincial spending on affordable housing; a wage increase for human services workers in a range special care housing; and an increase on the daily rate the province pays to providers of adult residential facilities. Steeves additionally summarized two recent policy changes potentially influencing social assistance recipients’ housing costs.
“Social assistance recipients will no longer have their benefits reduced if they are also receiving child support payments, the Canada-New Brunswick Housing Benefit or compensatory money related to personal injury,” he recounted. “Recently, reforms to the Household Income Policy were announced which allow roommates to be assessed separately. This change aims to improve access to affordable housing for social assistance recipients by allowing them to share accommodations.”
