Pre-hearing for mill tax appeal to be held next week

A pre-hearing regarding Resolute Forest Product’s appeal of its assessment of its mill property here will take place Feb. 15.
This will be meeting in Toronto between the Ontario Assessment Review Board and the parties involved.

The town will be represented by Municipal Tax Equity Consultants Inc. and MTE Paralegal Corp. in the appeal proceedings.
Fort Frances treasurer Laurie Witherspoon said the pre-hearing is a meeting to see where all parties are at within the required process.
She added it’s not possible to speculate what will come out of the pre-hearing, noting it’s up to the person chairing the meeting as to what will happen next, such as whether a date could be set for a full hearing.
As previously reported, Resolute is appealing to have the assessment of its property lowered.
The appeal covers the years 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012, and could have very serious repercussions for the town and its taxpayers.
The company is looking to have its assessment lowered from $22,763,400 to no more than $9,513,000 (previously, the 2011 assessment value of the mill was reported at $28,260,000 but more than $5 million of this is tax exempt, hence the revised figure of $22.7 million).
If the mill appeal is 100 percent successful, the town would have to give the company a refund of more than $4 million.
As well, in subsequent years, the town would see tax revenues reduced by a little over $1 million on an annual basis.
Town administration and council already are bracing for the impact of the reassessment, and has been taking a hard look at its staffing and services in its 2013 budget.
The writing may be on the wall as several Northern Ontario mills recently were successful in appealing their property values.
For example, the Municipal Property Assessment Corp. recently assessed the Domtar mill in Dryden at just $14 million, down from the $36 million estimated by the city in its 2013 budget.
A few years ago, it has been assessed at $50 million.
This reassessment means tax revenues from the Domtar mill will drop $1 million going forward, and force Dryden city council to deal with a $4-million shortfall in its 2013 budget.
Dryden council consulted with the public just last month regarding about $400,000 in cuts to this year’s budget.
Likewise, the assessment of the Domtar mill in Espanola recently dropped from $19 million to $9.9 million.
As a result of that reassessment, Espanola will need to refund $4.9 million in property taxes to Domtar.