I clicked online to see when our next power bill would come. For historical reasons, we pay the city of New Westminster bi-monthly for our electrical consumption. The department had recently done a switch over to a new, online system. However, the old one is still set up for property taxes. I clicked there and noticed that although we owe more than last year it is surely within reason. I had hoped for this despite how drastically our last assessment had risen. There's been talk of a housing bubble in the Vancouver area for years and years.
Most people don't stop to figure out how property taxes really work. Just because the value of one's own property increases doesn't mean that their taxes should. A city basically divides a budget by the total assessed value of property under its jurisdiction. When everyone's value rises uniformly, and city spending remains the same, then the tax should remain constant. Moreover, should there be an increase in taxable property with similar municipal spending, then one's own taxes could actually decrease. Due to inflation, this scenario seldom happens.
I guess it's good to know how much we'll be forking over.