Trailer Taxation

Make no mistake, Cambridge-Narrows is for sale, and the only people buying are trailer dwellers. Tin troglodytes, if you will, who are smarter than they look.

There's a surplus of inventory for sale along the Washademoak Lake. Nothing much seems to be selling but I have noticed a trend with those properties that do sell. The trend is to not build a home or cottage, but to put a mobile trailer on the land.

It's ugly, for sure. It's also a clever way to beat the taxman....for now. If I understand New Brunswick property tax law, these lakeside land owners will be paying tax on their land but not on their dwellings because they have wheels on them. It doesn't matter that they never move and they have decks around them that literally tether them to the land. They have wells and septic systems.

Let's face it, they're cottages. They're the cottages of the 21st century, but they're untaxed in the old reality. Those that put $40000-$80000 trailers on their land use the roads, lake and community infrastructure just like those of us with cottages/homes here, but they're not paying for that privilege.

It looks like the provincial government may be investigating the possibility of taxing these people which will make our current government even more unpopular, but are their potential actions justified? I think so.

Why should trailer owners not pay their fair share? Here's two scenarios:

Scenario 1) the owner of a lakefront cottage (no basement, sits on concrete slab) sitting on a one acre lot pays $1500 a year in property tax. The cottage is worth about $60000 and the land is worth $100000. The cottagers spend every July and August weekend at the lake.

Scenario 2)  the owner of a lakefront trailer (sits on concrete slab) sitting on a one acre lot pays $800 a year in property tax. The trailer is worth about $60000 and the land is worth $100000. The trailer owners spend every July and August weekend at the lake.

The difference is minimal except when it comes to taxes. The old argument was that the trailers were mobile and taxing them would have to depend on their location which would be impossible to monitor. The fact is that these trailers are not mobile, so let's stop pretending that they are.

The same goes for trailer parks. The taxes that the trailer park owners pay are in no way consistent with the manner with which their tenants use our community's resources. Not even close. I say that it's high time that the playing field be leveled. There will be a lot of whining, but fair's fair.