News Release

Councillor Wants Assessments Repealed to Pre-Hurricane Levels

(Wednesday, January 18/06)-- District 3 Councillor David Hendsbee today urged the provincial government to repeal any assessment increases since 2003 on properties in the Cole Harbour, Mineville and Lawrencetown areas.

Councillor Hendsbee said those areas were among the hardest hit by Hurricane Juan in 2003 and in light of the extensive damage caused, its unfair for the Province to be increasing assessments on these properties when little has been done to help those residents.

Hendsbee states that “ Many homeowners are still living with the impending threat of wildfire due to the vast amount of downed trees still yet to be removed. And the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s (CFIA) Brown Spruce Longhorn Beetle Quarantine has rendered the rest of this wood that can be salvaged as virtually worthless.”

“The natural beauty of much of the area has been damaged, and the devastation of many of the woodland operations has had a dramatic impact on the local economy of the area. These resource lands and residential properties have lost their net worth, so why is their Assessment Value still increasing? ” he said. “I would like to see the province’s Assessment Division, at the direction of the Minister of Service Nova Scotia and Municipal Relations, turn back assessments in these areas to what they were in 2003, before the hurricane hit.”

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Councillor David Hendsbee
District 3 (Preston-Lawrencetown-Chezzetcook)
(902) 483-0705 or 829-2465