Feeling unwanted
Come-fromaway tax ruins 22-year romance with Nova Scotia
The recently tabled Nova Scotia budget, particularly the Nova Scotia non-resident property tax, will triple our property taxes since we are out-of-province owners, thus making continued property ownership in Nova Scotia unsustainable for us.
We are from Connecticut. We fell in love with Nova Scotia in 2000 and bought 10 acres of Bay of Fundy shorefront that year. This property had been on the market for several years, with no takers.
Over the next few years, we built a year-round house there, where we spent several months each year, sometimes for as long as five months.
We sold that property in 2019, but before that had bought 15 acres on a lake in Annapolis County where we built a small, off-grid cabin.
Again, this property had been on the market for several years with no takers, so in both cases we purchased property that apparently nobody else wanted.
All this to say that in the 22 years we have been going to Nova Scotia, we have been contributing to the local economy in myriad ways: paying taxes, even though we were not able to use the health care or education systems that our taxes contributed to; we employed local contractors to build both of the houses and several outbuildings; we purchased all materials and furnishings locally; we bought groceries and everything else we needed while there; we bought a lot of artwork by local artists; we contributed money to several local non-profits, such as the Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens, Kings Theatre, the local arts council (ARCAC), and others.
We donated some significant Brad Hall sculptures that are now installed at ARCAC in Annapolis Royal. We also volunteered yearly for Paint the Town and at the Historic Gardens, both in Annapolis Royal.
Over the 22 years, I estimate that we have contributed about $750,000 to the Nova Scotia economy, and many hours of volunteer time. We also forged longlasting friendships with many people in the Annapolis area, and business relationships with many local businesses (stores, restaurants, banks, Home Hardware, local realtors, attorneys, etc.).
All of this will be lost to us and to Nova Scotia if the budget goes ahead as proposed. And, of course, we are not alone. We influenced at least two other American families over the past 20 or so years to buy land and build houses in Nova Scotia, and they have contributed similarly to the Nova Scotia economy; they, too, are feeling unwanted and may be forced to sell, because they, like us, are retired and simply can’t afford a tripling of their property taxes.
The case is similar for Canadians from out-of-province who have property in Nova Scotia; we have friends from Ontario who are also feeling unwanted and may be forced to sell after many decades of enjoying and contributing to Nova Scotia. I understand that Nova Scotia needs to raise money to improve
health care, housing, and for other needs, but to do it in this short-sighted and punitive way looks like economic suicide for a province that depends so much on people from away contributing.
And there appears to be no distinction made between out-of-province owners who are speculative, investmentoriented owners of very expensive property, probably mostly on the South Shore, and people like us who love rural Annapolis County and its beauty and people.
The provincial government should be urged by all who are concerned about this issue to reconsider this budget and to make it fairer for people who love and have given so much to the province, but who do not have the good fortune to be Nova Scotia residents.