Walking the oceanfront French Creek acreage that’s been in his family for 70 years, Joe Stanhope can remember everything from his own childhood.
“There wasn’t a lot of people here in those days. It was the end of the world,” says the French Creek resident.
But as BC Assessment rolls out its 2017 property valuations, he worries what the whopping increase waiting for him at the mailbox will mean for his quality of life.
“People with high assessments don’t get a homeowner grant, so you’re penalizing a lot of the longtime residents who’ve been on their property. I mean I’m a senior citizen; I have a fixed income and that hits me pretty hard,” he says.
The longtime advocate for taxpayers and seniors wonders what this will mean for nearby communities like Qualicum Beach, which is home to the oldest population in Canada.
“There’s a lot of people like that and I don’t know what the provincial government is going to do,” he says.
Currently, the threshold for a BC home owner grant, is $1.2 million but with rapidly rising property values across Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland, suddenly a lot fewer people qualify.
http://www.cheknews....nt-hold-251917/
First-world problem dudes, if you can not find a way to pay your property taxes on a $1.2M home, you fail home economics/finance 101.
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