The opinions that follow are those of the person expressing them and not necessarily shared by Cortes Currents, or Cortes Radio.
The following submission was made by Nancy Beach.
After dealing with BC assessment for 17 years or more, in regard to my small farm on Salt Spring Island, I have come to the conclusion that:
- Farm assessments should be administered by the Ministry of Agriculture, not the Ministry of Housing.
- The system for assessing farm status needs to be overhauled. It should not be lumped in with assessing the values of residential properties.
- Farmers should be given adequate time to present and debate their cases.
- More people who care about farms should sit on the board of the Property Assessment Appeal Board (PAAB), and the panel of the Property Assessment Review Panel (PARP).’
- PARP plan panel members making decisions concerning farms should be well educated about the farm regulations number. Pabst should not charge for their services.
- BC Farmers need an organization to represent them, represent themselves and help defend their interests before the B. C. Assessment when necessary.