Property Assessment/Property Taxes 2007

Saturna Island Property Owners Association

At a time when many of us are still smarting about our recent B.C. Assessment notice and tax bill for our property here on Saturna, it may be timely to highlight some work done recently by the Saturna Island Property Owners Association (SIPOA).

For the second year SIPOA conducted a review of the assessments for and the property taxes paid on Saturna in order to have a better understanding of what property owners pay in property tax and what we are receiving in the way of government services.

In 2006 we found that the total dollar assessment for Saturna Island for the 2006 property tax year was $172,855,081 for 619 properties. Residential properties were $168,354,011, or 97.4%, leaving only 2.6% for the remaining seven categories.

In 2007, the total dollar assessment for Saturna Island is $213,777,300 for 617 properties. Of that amount $208, 821,071 is residential, or 97.7% leaving 2.3% for the remaining categories. It is noteworthy that property assessment totals on Saturna increased by approximately 24% for two less properties. Taxes increased by approximately 7% for the same period.

Taxes collected in 2006: Taxes collected in 2007

Residential	$875,223	$947,489
Business	$65,694	65,006
Utility	$7,651	7,343
Industry	$7,481	7,346
Farming	$1,457	1,126
Forest	$934	917
Rec/Non Profit	$235	210
Major Ind/Lt. Ind.	0	0
Totals	$958,675	$1,029,437

The following is a breakdown of where our property tax dollars went:

2006 2007

School	$420,674	$439,488
Provincial rural	$133,420	$138,912
Saturna Island Fire	$112,094	$118,466
Islands Trust	$111,797	$138,645
CRD	$99,155	$114,087
Capital Regional Hospital	$40,018	$45,360
Saturna Parks & Rec	$15,611	$19,181
BC Assessment	$14,974	$15,298
SGI Harbour Facility	$10,932	Now under CRD
Totals	$958,675	$1,029.437

All Parks Canada lands (approximately 50% of Saturna) are classed in the Rec/Non Profit category and payments are made to the province in lieu of taxes.

How pilts work

A tax bill similar to that received by taxpayers is sent to the federal government and Public Works (on behalf of the federal government) makes a payment in lieu of taxes (pilt) to the provincial Surveyor of Taxes, most of which is forwarded to the CRD.

However, unlike taxpayers, the federal government can decide what if any of the tax bill they are going to pay and sends this amount to the provincial Surveyor of Taxes. A recent court case in Quebec determined that in the future payments in lieu of taxes for assessed values will need to be fully paid.

If this ruling is upheld by the Supreme Court it could benefit local communities, but not necessarily. For example, in the 2006 taxation year $28,926.22 was paid by the federal government for lands on Saturna assessed at approximately $20,000,000. For the 2006 taxation year $2,678 of the pilt was distributed to the Saturna Island Fire Protection Society and $375 distributed to Saturna Parks and Recreation Commission.

Over the past year SIPOA has been working with our federal, provincial and locally elected representatives and Parks Canada to find out how pilts are established and distributed, and which agencies determine who gets what. Our intent is to see if more of Parks Canada’s payments in lieu of taxes can be directed toward Saturna.

It should be said that while SIPOA understands that we should not and do not expect to receive expenditures dollar to dollar for our taxes, the infrastructure on Saturna is pitifully under funded and, in consequence our roads, unsafe.

Those interested in more information are invited to contact SIPOA at sipoa@yahoogroups.com or check out our webpage on saturnacan.net.