Whereas under the Assessment Act regulations for land values of designated port properties are assessed based on their 2007 valuation and increases in assessed land value are indexed to inflation, while other comparable industrial land assessments are market based; And whereas over time, these different methods of assessing comparable industrial land have resulted in an unequal distribution of the property tax burden both within the industrial property class and between property classes: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM ask the Province for purposes of tax fairness, that the method by which the assessed value of designated port property land is determined under the Assessment Act regulations, be amended to gradually bring the assessed value of designated port property land closer to the market rate assessed values of other comparable industrial land.
