It was not a good year for the City of Moose Jaw when it came to property assessment appeals. 

A report was presented to city council on Monday night showing that 42 appeals were filed with the Moose Jaw Board of Revision (BOR) in 2020, with four found to be invalid, five withdrawn, 13 resolved through an agreement to adjust, and 20 proceeded to a hearing.

While monetary amounts were not put into the report, information obtained from the City of Moose Jaw showed the city lost $340,000 in revenue and $25.79 million of assessment was lost in the appeals. 

City council reacted to the report with silence. Coun. Doug Blanc made a motion of receive and file and there was no further discussion. The silence came as a surprise to Coun. Heather Eby, who as deputy mayor chairs the committee of the whole. She eventually asked who was in favour of the receive and file motion. 

“I can call to question but I do think there's some important information in there," said Eby, "but if nobody cares to put that out there, I guess I will call to question all those in favour."

Mayor Fraser Tolmie also voiced his concerns over the fact there was no discussion over a matter that greatly impacts the city’s bottom line. 

“We’ll circle back and make sure that council in the future is going to have more of a discussion around that,” he said. 

The track record of property assessment appeals has not been kind to the city. From 2014 to 2019, the city lost $1.6 million in revenue and $118 million in assessment losses from appeals. 

The BOR is an independent body that hears assessment appeals to determine if errors have been made in the assessment of a property’s value for property tax purposes. 

The BOR is only the first step in the appeals process. All 20 appeals that went to hearings were further appealed to the Saskatchewan Municipal Board with 11 being appealed by the property owner, eight appealed by the city assessor/Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency (SAMA), and one was appealed by both SAMA and the property owner.