The owner of the floating garden in Gibsons Harbour is a bit dismayed by the reaction to a Facebook post by her son that reignited the debate over the property tax status of the houseboat and its two garden barges.
Liz Williams told Coast Reporter this week that her first reaction was to put a stop to a go-fund-me campaign aimed at raising money to cover her moorage and tax bill. “I didn’t want that to happen,” she said. “But it did, and now there’s been this money collected.”
Williams also said she wants to clear up some confusion about those moorage fees, which include a live-aboard charge. She said they’re closer to $1,100 per month than the $1,300 mentioned on Facebook, and she has no argument with what she pays the Harbour Authority.
Williams is working with a lawyer to have the money from the go-fund-me campaign that can’t be refunded put into a trust that could eventually be used to pay the estimated $1,000 she owes in property taxes, “because the Town has said that money will have to be paid.”
For now, though, Williams is determined to have the BC Assessment ruling that declared her houseboat Flora a taxable property overturned, and wants the Town to back her up.
Williams said the Town hasn’t been as helpful as it claims, although Town staff have worked with her to contact BC Assessment and take advantage of grants to lower her taxes. But, she said, they’ve shown no interest in her effort to have her houseboat treated as any other boat. According to Williams, that’s because it was at the Town’s urging that the provincial authority added the boat and floats to the tax roll in 2011.
“The Town says once you’re assessed there’s nothing we can do [to get you off the tax roll], but they’re responsible for the assessment in the first place.”
Williams said she’s not asking for a complete exemption. “What I want is to be reassessed. I will agree my [garden] floats are different and fall under [the property tax], but my boat does not.”
Her current taxes are only about $100 a year, according to the Town, but Williams said there’s an important principle at stake. She doesn’t want to be used as a precedent that could lead to other boat owners having to pay property taxes.
“It’s ridiculous. I’ve got to put my foot down. As soon as one boat pays a ‘land tax’ that’ll open the doors to everyone having to pay.”
Williams has been documenting everything since she was first added to the property tax roll – including correspondence with the Town and BC Assessment, affidavits attesting to the fact Flora is a working boat, a marine surveyors report saying the same, and a copy of a Supreme Court of B.C. decision that a riverboat used as a floating casino on the Lower Mainland was incorrectly assessed as property when it should have been considered a boat.
She said, though, that she doesn’t have the resources for that sort of court fight.
Williams is, however, planning a repeat of her 2013 protest, which involved big, bright signs on the floating garden, which draws a lot of sightseers, and a petition.
As part of her spring cleanup she’s making sure the boat’s registration numbers are displayed. “I will very definitely be doing it. All the things I said never made a lick of difference until I put all those pink signs up on Canada Day [2013].”
