The City of Richmond is taking BC Hydro to court claiming the power authority paid it less in grants than it did to other municipalities and is basing its payments on outdated property assessments, something the city is calling "unreasonable."
Instead of paying property taxes, BC Hydro pays “grants in lieu of taxes,” commonly referred to as GILTs. This is one per cent of all BC Hydro bills in the city and the equivalent of what would be paid in property taxes.
However, in 2022 and 2023, BC Hydro calculated this latter part based on 2020 property taxes, unlike its previous practice of basing it on the previous year’s property assessment, the city claims in the lawsuit.
Furthermore, the city claims BC Hydro calculated its grants like this only for Richmond and Surrey while all other municipalities received grants based on the previous year’s assessments.
In its lawsuit, the City of Richmond claims the refusal by BC Hydro to pay the full grant is “arbitrary and irrational” and it is making other Richmond taxpayers subsidize BC Hydro.
While the city acknowledges BC Hydro has the right to change its formula on calculating grants, the city says this should be done in the same way for all municipalities.
BC Hydro, in correspondence quoted in the lawsuit, states it is basing its grants on 2020 tax rates because of large increases in tax rates in 2021, noting the property tax rate for Class 2 properties, that is properties with utilities, rose by 40.6 per cent in 2021.
In the lawsuit, the City of Richmond claims BC Hydro’s 2022 payment was about $797,000 “short.”
In March 2023, BC Hydro informed the city it was going to continue to use the 2020 assessment information and in June the city received a “reduced amount,” the city claims in its lawsuit.
The City of Richmond filed the civil claim in B.C. Supreme Court on April 5.
BC Hydro hasn’t yet responded to the civil suit and none of the City of Richmond’s claims have been proven in court.
