Joan Silver - 100 Mile House Free Press Published: June 16, 2009
Property owners got their tax notices recently and some homeowners are questioning how much they have to pay. Bruce Rattray, Area L Cariboo Regional District director, said he has heard from six taxpayers about the cost of fire protection. Interlakes residents voted last summer to have fire protection become a CRD function and pay for the service on their taxes. Last year those taxpayers voluntarily paid $60 for fire protection. This year all property is taxed a flat $52.66 plus a 1.5208 mill rate per $1,000 of assessed value of the improvements. That means a house worth $200,000 would pay $304.16 plus the $52.66. A house worth $300,000 would pay $456.24 plus the parcel tax of $52.66.
“The mill rate for Interlakes applies only to the building, it doesn’t apply to the land; there’s a parcel tax that’s intended to get away from the rapidly escalating prices on land which really shouldn’t affect how much you pay for fire protection, that’s more of an improvement type issue,” said Rattray.
He said there’s quite a bit of work to do before the department can get certification and that couldn’t start until the budget was finalized. “They need the new equipment in place, the halls need the bells and whistles the halls have to do; there’s a certain amount of additional training that was required and the guys have all been working on that but you couldn’t actually get into the equipment purchases and the capital stuff until budgets were approved and budgets weren’t approved until the end of March,” said Rattray. Once that certification is in place Rattray expects insurance companies will lower their rates and his own insurance company said it would be a substantial reduction that would offset the cost of fire protection.
Rattray said there is a flyer campaign in the community that says who residents should contact if they don’t like the cost of fire protection; Rattray is included on that list but he said at this point he’s not sure anything can really be done. “The tax notices are already out, the province is already collecting the taxes aside from not paying your tax, which has some repercussions and certainly not something I would recommend people do,” said Rattray. There were public meetings in June and August last year. The budget information was presented at the town hall meetings and the budget has been approved. He said there are processes in the works right now to acquire new land for the hall, put together projects for upgrades to the halls and purchase new equipment. Doug Townsend, Interlakes fire chief, said there has been some backlash but the referendum passed by 79 per cent. “I can appreciate people being concerned; it’s hard times for some people,” he said. Townsend said this is an extra cost for people who don’t have insurance but, if the department hadn’t gone with the CRD, they’d probably have closed their doors by now because there just wasn’t enough money to keep the department running. Lynn Paterson, CRD chief financial officer, said several residents had called for clarification of their taxes.
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