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COVERAGE WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 16, 2015
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LOCAL NEWS – LOCAL MATTERS
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ROLLER DERBY: Five-
year-old Matthew Cui, with Ping Wang behind, was engrossed in his art project at the Burnaby Art Gallery’s free family studio dropin on Saturday. The project of the day was about layering colour as the exhibition Layers: Print and Beyond, is currently on at the gallery. Check out www. burnabyartgallery. ca for more on the exhibition and see more photos at www. burnabynow.com.
PHOTO JENNIFER GAUTHIER
Freeze assessments: City asks province Property values skyrocket leaving many homeowners looking at losing their annual homeowner grant By Jeremy Deutsch
jdeutsch@burnabynow.com
Word that thousands of homes in Burnaby will be seeing massive increases in their property assessments for 2016 has prompted local politicians to act. On Monday, city council endorsed sending a letter to the Ministry of Com-
munity, Sport and Cultural Development requesting the province freeze property assessments to last year’s levels due to the unprecedented rise in property values. Mayor Derek Corrigan said the city needed to take action immediately since the municipality is in the process of setting the tax rate for 2016.
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“I think they (the provincial government) have to hear loud and clear from the citizens that this is a big issue, that it has a big impact and they’re not going to accept it,” he told the NOW. The concern from council is how the rising home values will affect residents, who count on the homeowners grant to help pay
their property taxes. The mayor suggested a large number of homeowners will be losing their grants, which in turn affects the affordability of their home. Last week, B.C. Assessment sent out 37,000 letters around the region notifying homeowners they could expect a dramatic increase in
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their property assessments, including in Burnaby where a couple neighbourhoods were pegged for increases of 23 and 27 per cent. But a city document shows in greater detail the impact of the assessment increases in Burnaby. In all, there are 7,180 properties with assessment increases at, or more than,
20 per cent.The report noted of these properties, 7,012 have increases in excess of 40 per cent. The vast majority – 6,720 – are single family homes, facing an average increase of 32 per cent. In at least one case, a homeowner will see their Continued on page 8
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