IWANUS: Property tax, lipstick on a pig, and figuring out who the heck that old guy is in the mirror

Introducing Jerry Iwanus, the newest Northumberland Free Press columnist

Jerry Iwanus, the author of the new book Taxing New Brunswick, is the newest Free Press columnist. He’ll write about the province’s property tax system and eventually share personal stories about finding his way in the Maritimes after ‘coming from away.’ (SUBMITTED PHOTO)

The editor-in-chief has given me the privilege of contributing to this exciting new(ish) digital publication in a couple of different areas over time.

I’m very grateful for the opportunity because the oligopoly that controls such things in Canada has pushed local news and views ever more to the wayside over the past number of years. So I thought it best to give you a bit of a heads-up as to what’s coming in these regular posts.

Over the next three months or so, I’ll put on my retired Service New Brunswick assessor’s hat so that I can share what I know about the province’s broken property assessment and taxation system.

Having worked in property valuation for 20 years in Alberta and New Brunswick (and having served as mayor of a small municipality and a member of an area assessment review board), I’ve learned a couple of things along the way that readers may find useful.

Why three months? Most importantly, we receive our 2025 property assessment notices in January. So this stuff will be on our minds a lot, in some cases, and with some unpleasant words mixed in on occasion.

Also important, though, is that we’ll supposedly find out more about what the new Liberal government has in mind for reforming the assessment and taxation system in the next while.

The province promised comprehensive reform in 2026 but I think that’s too ambitious a time frame for anything more than tinkering – just enough to say they did something but not enough to get to the root of the problem.

I think the system needs more than putting proverbial lipstick on the troublesome assessment pig, just so the government can claim to keep a promise of having it ready for January of the following year. Tinkering will only make things worse.