Property taxes in rural New Brunswick soar following amalgamations

Tammy Burrell got the 2025 property tax bill for her rural Salisbury home earlier this month and as she feared, it had risen to $1,309. 

It's lower than typical property tax amounts on houses in New Brunswick cities, but for the cost-conscious Burrell, who lives and works in a rural area to save money, the amount is 59 per cent more than she was paying three years ago.  

It's a big jump, and the $486 increase has been putting real pressure on Burrell's razor-thin household budget.

"I live a very basic life," Burrell said in an interview.

"I don't drink, I don't smoke. I can't afford to go out and eat. I got rid of my cable TV because I couldn't afford that any more," she said.

"Every penny I have is going toward paying bills, and these property taxes keep going up and up."

More than 400,000 property tax bills were mailed out across New Brunswick earlier this month and for the third straight year, some of the highest tax increases were delivered to rural homeowners.  

Burrell lives in an area that used to be the local service district of Coverdale, in southeastern New Brunswick. It was among more than 200 rural New Brunswick areas broken up by the province in January 2023 and made to merge with existing municipalities, or in some cases join with each other, into new larger rural districts.  

The changes shrank the number of local government entities in New Brunswick from 340 to 89 and although some financial changes were expected, the risk of large tax increases on some rural homeowners was not something that government highlighted.

A  white paper issued in 2021 that first announced the proposed reforms did acknowledge that, "Increases or decreases in tax rates will result from the restructurings," but in the case of increases, it said those would be "phased in to mitigate the impact to property owners."

WATCH | Price of admission: The high cost of amalgamation:

Big bills: Why property taxes on some rural homeowners are soaring

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Duration 3:21

New Brunswick issued more than 400,000 property tax bills in March, and for the third year in a row, some of the highest tax increases have gone to rural homeowners in newly amalgamated communities. Rising assessments and rising tax rates have some homeowners paying 60 per cent more tax on their houses than three years ago.

The province eventually set a limit of tax rate increases that could be imposed on rural property owners following a merging of communities of five cents per $100 of a property's assessed value per year.  

But there were exceptions to that limit and many rural residents soon experienced tax rate increases above that amount, even as property assessments on their homes were also escalating.

In Hampton, residents of the old local service district of Norton have had their tax rates increase by more than 5 cents per $100 of a property's assessed value in each of the last three years.

That, combined with large assessment increases on houses in the area, have several former Norton residents paying 69 per cent more in property tax this year than three years ago, including a 15 per cent increase in this year's bill.

In Nerepis, now part of the town of Grand Bay-Westfield, rising property assessments and higher tax rates have pushed tax bills up more than 50 per cent since the forced merger, including 16 per cent this year.

And in Harvey, several residents in the Longs Creek area that used to be part of the Kingsclear local service district received property tax bills this month that are 62 per cent higher than three years ago.  

That includes an increase in property taxes this year of 26 per cent, fuelled partly by assessment increases and partly by a 13.4-cent increase per $100 of assessed value in the property tax rate.

Richard Corey is the mayor of Harvey and says the "significant" tax rate increase on former Kingsclear properties this year was required to have residents pay for their fair share of police, fire, garbage collection and other services.

"That was a big part of municipal government reform, said Corey. "People were not paying for all the services they were receiving and the deal was people will now pay."

Corey said the province was consulted about whether Harvey needed to raise property taxes on its former Kingsclear residents gradually but said approval was given to do it this year all at once.  

"Government said you can make that decision if you wish," said Corey.

A request to the New Brunswick Department of Local Government for an interview about the size of property tax increases being experienced in many rural areas was not granted. 

However, in a statement, department spokesperson Kelly Cormier said limits that were set to protect rural areas being absorbed into a municipality from rapid tax increases was a temporary measure that has expired in some locations.

"When a local government has finalized its transition, council can adjust the rates as they see fit," wrote Cormier. 

In Burrell's case, she has experienced two tax rate increases so far, one related to municipal reform and one related to a decision by Salisbury to build a new fire hall.   

She already faces a 10 per cent increase in her property tax bill next year and another 10 per cent the year after as legislated protections expire that shelter some of the assessment increases she has already gotten on her house from tax. 

Burrell is worried about what that might mean.

"I'll be homeless in less than two years because there's not much more I can cut," she said.