Susan Lazaruk
The Province
The 50-per-cent hike in the assessed value of houses expected for 2017 in Metro Vancouver is likely going to prevent increasingly more people from claiming the homeowners grant.
Regional politicians are renewing calls for changes to the provincial grant so that fewer owners whose houses worth over the $1.2 million eligibility cutoff will lose the $570 property tax break.
The province intended for 91 per cent of homeowners to be eligible for the tax break but only half that percentage in Metro Vancouver can take advantage of it, said Port Coquitlam Mayor Greg Moore, who also chairs Metro Vancouver.
He said the inflation of house prices past $1.2 million is making it difficult for owners on fixed incomes to pay their taxes.
“Do we want to force someone to sell their home to pay their taxes?” he said.
He said Metro Vancouver, where 56 per cent of the B.C. population lives, wants to make the grant an election issue by urging provincial parties to suggest changes to the grant to make it fairer for all homeowners, especially those who are house-rich and cash-poor.
“We need a better allocation of the homeowner grant,” he said. “We need to have the conversation.”
Vancouver council in the fall said it intended to lobby the province to change the eligibility rules for the grant as more of its citizens lose the grant because of higher assessed values.
In the fall, a motion to make the grant more equitable across the province was defeated at the annual Union of B.C. Municipalities convention. Burnaby had asked the UBCM to petition the province for a review of the grant but Moore said politicians from rural municipalities voted it down.
Finance ministry spokesman Jamie Edwardson said the province reviews the eligibility threshold in light of yearly B.C. Assessment values and noted it was recently adjusted to $1.2 million from $1.1 million. He said the province is committed to maintaining the eligibility threshold at the same level for the whole province.
He said some homeowners have the option to defer all or part of their taxes until the property is sold and low-income seniors, veterans or homeowners with a disability are eligible for replacement grants if their properties exceed the threshold.
Vancouver Coun. Geoff Meggs has said those facing a tax bill at least have a home and one that’s rising in value “which a lot of people never will.”
Moore said two suggestions to make the grant fairer would be to allow the grant based on the home’s price when it was purchased or to allow a certain percentage of homes in each community the grant.
He said, for instance, that few homeowners in West Vancouver would be eligible for current grant because of the high value of homes there.
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