A push for a decrease in Teck’s tax bill was brought to the front burner Monday, when the city’s general finance report highlighted an ongoing appeal to the B.C. Assessment Authority.
Teck is seeking a reduction in assessments of $45 million in total major industrial assessments from 2009, which represents approximately 25 per cent of the value in this rate class, explained Trail councillor Kevin Jolly.
If Teck is successful, the city and other taxing agencies would have to pay back property taxes levied on this amount for the 2009, 2010 and 2011 property tax years.
This would mean Trail would be required to pay some $4.8 million plus interest and the regional district would have to fork over about $1.1 million, noted Jolly.
Both Warfield Operations and Tadanac Operations assessments have been under appeal since 2009.
“We review our property assessment routinely to confirm that in our view that everything on the assessment is correct and if we find things that we don’t think are correct, then we’ll submit an appeal,” explained Richard Deane, manager of energy and public affairs.
Dennis Hickson, manager of the B.C. Assessment office in Nelson, said an adjudicator has decided to break the appeal into categories, which are heard separately.
The company awaits decision on a November hearing that focused on the value that should be attributed to accessible electrical equipment on both sites while looking to the next aspect of the appeal, which deals mostly with underground piping on both properties that either isn’t on the roll or is on the roll but has been abandoned for many years.