Duane Hicks
The provincial government has promised to address concerns municipalities have had about the Municipal Property Assessment Corp. following a meeting Monday with members of a coalition consisting of Fort Frances and six other Northwestern Ontario communities.
Mayor Roy Avis, along with leaders from James (Elk Lake), Espanola, Dryden, and Thunder Bay, met with deputy Finance minister Steve Orsini and William Forward, deputy minister of municipal affairs and housing, to drive home the point that, given the recent reassessment of mills in the respective communities and the financial impact it has had on them, MPAC has to change the way it handles industrial property assessment.
“[Orsini] told us the buck stops at that desk,” Mayor Avis said yesterday in an interview from Toronto.
“It’s a one-stop shop from now on, that he’ll be handling this issue himself, and that moving forward, he wanted to have a working group.
“[He] asked the five municipalities if we would participate in the working group and make recommendations going forward—better changes and ways we can make the system better,” Mayor Avis note.
“It was a very, very good meeting,” he added.
Mayor Avis said Orsini was “very concerned about the process, very concerned about MPAC and how they end up with these values, where there is such a wide variance between the value put on the mill by MPAC and what the negotiated settlements from the ARB [Assessment Review Board] hearings are coming out as.”
“They admit the system is broken. Something has to be done,” he added, noting
municipalities cannot go forward, put a proper budget together, and then be hit with a four-year tax payback to the companies which own the mills.
Mayor Avis said he’s looking forward to being part of the working group, which will be able to offer first-hand knowledge to the province.
“We’ve all gone through this and experienced it,” he noted. “Most of the municipalities have experienced it twice now.”
Mayor Avis said it’s too early to know what could come out of the working group, but Orsini said he’d like to see “a bucket list” that the partners can start working from so they can “come up with a good solution to the problem—one that’s long-term and not just a reaction to the issue on the table.”
“And I agree with him on that,” the mayor added.
The topic of property assessment also loomed large at the annual meeting of the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association (NOMA) in Thunder Bay last Thursday.
Antoni Wisniowski, president and CEO of MPAC, came under fire from several delegates, noted Coun. Rick Wiedenhoeft, who attended the meeting along with Mayor Avis and Couns. Ken Perry and Paul Ryan.
“He indicated in his presentation that MPAC did have some problems and was looking at remodelling or refurbishing their methodology,” he said.
“After his presentation, he opened the floor to questions and he was hit pretty hard with several questions about the impact that it’s had on the smaller and northern communities, and the lack on involvement of MPAC in our ARB [Assessment Review Board] hearings because sometimes they’re weren’t ready, they didn’t participate to the level that we thought they should participate,” added Coun. Wiedenhoeft.
Wisniowski also was questioned about the disparity between functional and economic obsolescence and the value of industrial properties.
With the downturn in the economy starting as far back as 2008, it’s hard to justify the fact that, between 2008 and 2012, industrial properties continued to appreciate in value, noted Coun. Wiedenhoeft.
More recently, these values drastically were reduced following ARB hearings—leaving municipalities on the hook.
“They’re going to have to be making some changes in the near future,” he added.
Other presentations at the two-day meeting covered topics ranging from forestry and mining to the North West Local Health Integration Network (LHIN).
Regarding health services, Coun. Wiedenhoeft said there was discussion about the lack of care and treatment facilities for the mentally ill here.
“What happens is the mentally ill get picked up in the streets by the police, taken to emergency because they are acting out or doing something potentially harmful,” he noted.
“There’s no place in the hospital for them, so the hospital emergency maybe gives them a pill, sends them out the door, and they get in trouble again.
“Then the police pick them up, bring them back—the police spend a lot of time with mentally-ill patients but there’s no treatment or care facilities available for these people,” added Coun. Wiedenhoeft.
“There’s no room in our hospitals. What do we do with them?”
He noted the province closed many treatment facilities over the years, including the psychiatric hospital in Thunder Bay, begging the question, “Where do these people go for help?”
One delegate at NOMA attested she lost two sons to suicide because of mental problems, and there was nowhere in the region they could get help.
“It’s a serious issue in the north, and we really need some help,” stressed Coun. Wiedenhoeft.
The NOMA conference also included speeches by Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath, PC leader Tim Hudak, Thunder Bay-Atikokan MPP Bill Mauro, Kenora-Rainy River MPP Sarah Campbell, Thunder Bay-Rainy River MP John Rafferty, and Thunder Bay-Superior North MP Bruce Hyer.
As well, there was a “bear pit” session on Friday featuring nine provincial ministers.
“It was the largest turnout of provincial ministers that we’ve ever had at a forum [in Northwestern Ontario],” noted Coun. Wiedenhoeft, adding he got the sense that an election may be coming up and the ministers felt it was necessary to be there “to show the strength of the Liberal party in the north.”
One minister who was absent was Finance minister Charles Sousa. Coun. Wiedenhoeft said he had wanted to ask Sousa about a possible increase in policing costs.
He noted he’s heard policing costs could be going up as much as 10 percent next year and, along with other municipalities, Fort Frances is worried about this hike.
Coun. Wiedenhoeft said the OPP contract was negotiated in a free, open bargaining session and he has nothing against the OPP having negotiated the settlement.
“My argument is with province of Ontario,” he stressed. “They negotiated that settlement and now they’re going to say, ‘Okay, municipalities, you pay the bill.’”
The problem with this is the policing portion of the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund formula hasn’t gone up in several years, and, in fact, recently went down a bit.
This means municipalities have even less money than before to help pay for policing.
“If the province is going to negotiate these settlements with the OPP, the least they could do is increase the policing component of the OMPF formula,” Coun. Wiedenhoeft argued.
