The number of farm properties in the province has dropped, according to BC Assessment data released this week. The number of farm properties on the 2024 tax roll is 50,565, down 1% from 51,066 properties last year. The aggregate value is nearly $1.3 billion. BC Assessment deputy assessor Peter Alexander, who focuses on farm properties, …
BC Assessment
Kelowna fallow farmland returns
The City of Kelowna’s efforts to preserve farmland are paying off but fewer people are working the land. An agriculture plan progress report presented to Kelowna council November 6 shows a drop in the number of active farm operations in the Central Okanagan region since 2017. Six years ago, there were 1,034 actively farmed parcels; …
Farm values stable despite market shifts
Property assessments will soon be landing in mailboxes across the province, with the publication of the 2023 tax roll by the BC Assessment Authority. But farmland assessments in the province are largely unchanged despite the dramatic shifts in the real estate market as a whole, according to BC Assessment. “Properties with Farm Classification have static legislated …
Budget consultation picks priorities
The annual hearings of the province’s budget committee – formally known as the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services – has picked three key funding priorities for the agriculture sector in the 2023/2024 fiscal year. The committee’s report, issued August 11, flagged calls for greater provincial funding of agriculture, presentations regarding the importance …
Farm status requires proof
Two years after the province cut farmers some slack when it came to proving their qualification for farm class status with BC Assessment, proof is once again required. “We have currently returned to [the] standard practice of mailouts/income requests to property owners as per regulations to maintain/qualify for farm class for the 2023 roll,” BC Assessment …
Farm property assessments increase
There are more farm properties worth more money in BC this year than there were two years ago. The tax roll unveiled this week by the BC Assessment Authority includes 52,073 farm properties with an assessed value of $1.29 billion as of the valuation date of July 1, 2020. This is up from approximately 51,000 …