Millennium Line - Broadway Extension: Planning & Pre-Construction

[queetz@home]

Originally Posted by Sheba

A quote from that article: "...Canadian municipalities tend to use their debt financing powers wisely to pay for necessary improvements, such as roads, utilities and public amenities like community centres and libraries. That is largely because provincial governments regulate how much debt cities can take on, and cities - unlike their provincial or federal counterparts - must balance their budgets. As a result, Canadian municipalities tend to be healthier, better run and better credit risks than those in the United States..."

That said it looks like Vancouver is going to have to start raising property taxes to pay for the debt it already has - and it'll have to keep raising it if it wants the UBC Line to a bored tunnel.

Considering how ridiculously high property values in Vancouver are and low the property taxes are in relation to it, the city doesn't have to raise the property tax that much in order to have the funding to pay any debt related expense for its share of the Broadway Line.

Canada's Highest, Lowest Property Tax

The Real Property Association of Canada (REALpac) has released new numbers on property tax rates across the country, and of major cities surveyed, Vancouver came in with the lowest property tax rate.

But the tax rate is just part of the story; ultimately what you pay depends on your home’s assessed value.

So we took REALpac’s numbers and crunched them with the Canadian Real Estate Association’s estimates of average house prices. That gives us an approximate idea of what an average property tax bill will look like in Canada’s major cities after the next round of assessments.

And guess what? Vancouver still comes out as the lowest property tax jurisdiction. The average property tax bill there works out to $2,322 per year.

So there you have it, folks. At the end of the day, the resistance of Vancouver raising property tax to pay for its share is nothing more than the usual self entitlement and "I want this service but have everyone else pay for it" attitude...