St. John’s mayor Danny Breen says the city is unable to freeze property assessments, as has been suggested by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

The Atlantic director with the federation, Devin Drover, has suggested that the city “stop treating home values as a blank cheque.”

Mayor Breen says he’s unsure where the notion came from. He says conducting property assessments is set in legislation.

“Well, we can’t freeze assessments; we have an assessment act that provides how assessments are done for the city of St. John’s, and they’re done every two years,” he says, “That’s just not something that we do.”

Mayor Breen says this year is not an assessment year, but next year is.

“What we manage is the mil rate. Our goal is to manage our expenses.”