Whereas regional districts exercise their legislated authority to remediate properties of hazardous conditions andor environmental contamination, the cost of which may be recovered from the property owners or added to taxes in arrears if unpaid on December 31 in the year in which the work is done; And whereas if the taxes and debts remain unpaid, pursuant to the Taxation Rural Area Act a property may be forfeited to the Province and the Province is under no obligation to reimburse a regional district for the cost of remediating properties of hazardous conditions andor environmental contamination: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM urge the Province to enact legislation or provisions that enable local governments to be reimbursed for the costs of remediating properties of hazardous conditions andor environmental contamination that are subsequently forfeited to the Province on default of payment of the costs by the property owner.
Ministry of Finance The Province understands the concern raised in this resolution. Prior to 2017, in about a dozen cases, the Province acknowledged the regional district charge, but where collection was risky or unlikely to occur, payment was only made to the regional district upon collection of the debt by the Surveyor of Taxes office. However, in conjunction with the development of the Provinces new property tax collection system, a policy decision was made to no longer evaluate the risk of debt collection or to evaluate the local government contention that the unpaid charge is legitimate. Effective in early 2017, the Province now accepts all collection risk on unpaid fees and charges that can be recovered as property taxes, unless: -The fee or charge is for less than 10.00. -The property is identified by a folio number that does not exist or does not appear on the current year assessment and taxation roll. -The property belongs to the provincial Crown and the previous owner has no right to reacquire the property by paying the outstanding property taxes. The file to submit the fees and charges from local governments is sent annually from January 1st to January 15th via eTaxBC and electronically uploaded into our tax collection system. Any dispute or disagreement on the fee or charge that is received and to be recovered as unpaid property tax must be settled between the property owner and the local government. The Surveyor of Taxes pays out the accepted fees and charges in early November of the year in which the fees and charges are added to the property taxes. Information on the process to transfer certain unpaid fees and charges to be recovered as rural property tax can be found on the Ministry of Finance website: http:www2.gov.bc.cagovcontenttaxesproperty-taxeshelp-centretax-resource… Under the heading Regional District and Regional Hospital District go to Training Material. This new process should address the concerns in the resolution and allow regional districts to proceed with property remediation under their bylaws without fear of financial loss.