BC Assessment offices closing

Okanagan Saturday Staff 2010-09-11
Twenty employees of BC Assessment who had been based in Penticton and Vernon are expected to report for work Monday in Kelowna. Offices in the South and North Okanagan were being decommissioned this week as the provincial government agency centralizes its Valley services in Kelowna. "They‘ve been taking out the phone lines and removing the computers, so I expect the transfer to Kelowna will officially take place on Monday," Kevin McPhail, who represents the unionized workers, said Friday. Since the centralization of BC Assessment services was announced last year, the union says it has been trying without success to find out how much the move will really save taxpayers.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees has a Freedom of Information request in with the government to try to determine the extent, if any, of the savings. Closure of the BC Assessment offices in Penticton and Vernon, McPhail said, will particularly affect elderly people, who preferred to have face-to-face contact with appraisers regarding the assessed value of their homes. Other people with complex appraisal issues may not get the service they desire through phone or Internet connections, he said. BC Assessment staff spend much of their time in the field, using building permit reports from different municipalities to check over new projects for inclusion in future tax roll notices. Given the centralization of services in Kelowna, McPhail said it‘s conceivable some workers will have to drive up from Penticton each day to check in at the office, only to then return to inspect properties in the South Okanagan. So far, he said, the employer has not responded favourably to requests for compressed work-week options, or the possibility of telecommuting.