ABSTRACT
Urban development pressure on rural land in the 1970s led to the development of British Columbia’s (BC) most important provincial agricultural policy, the establishment of an Agriculture Land Reserve. Prior to 1974, each assessing jurisdiction set its own standards for the appraisal and taxation of farm land. Rural areas were assessed by the province as small taxing jurisdictions could not afford qualified assessors. Due to the limitations of the current farm assessment and taxation system, there is some consideration of a system that would transfer the property tax burden from the farm land and farm outbuildings to the residence and an area of land associated with the residence. BC Assessment is piloting a digital based Mapping Information System. BC Assessment uses a large IBM mainframe accessed province-wide through terminals and personal computers with mainframe connection. The Statutory System enables BC Assessment to fulfil its statutory obligations by producing all assessment rolls as well as their corresponding value summary reports.
