Cumberland’s Peek-a-Boo Tax Bills

The Director of Finance told Cumberland County Council last night that the municipality faced an embarrassing situation with this year’s property tax bills.

Andrew MacDonald said a glitch in the system placed a random post office box number in the mailing address for nearly 75 per cent of this year’s tax bills.

MacDonald says the county has been using the current software for a number of years, but this is the first time the aberration has appeared.

The tax bills are correct, but the extra line of text in the address has pushed the recipients name above the window of the mailing envelope, causing problems for Canada Post to properly identify the recipient of the county’s invoices.

MacDonald told council last night that Canada Post is working with the municipality to properly identify the intended recipient for each bill. In some cases, the county will have to re-issue tax bills with amended addresses.

MacDonald says the glitch may mean that anticipated tax revenue may arrive a little later than anticipated.