Duane Hicks
Fort Frances council is hoping for an explanation from the Municipal Property Assessment Corp. for a nearly $13-million loss of assessment between last year and this year.
Before council even looks at its 2017 budget, this loss of assessment equals a shortfall of $210,000 that will have to be accounted for.
This means the notional tax rates will have to be 1.75 percent higher this year just to collect the same taxes as in 2016.
And that’s before considering the substantial assessment shifts some taxpayers will see within their respective property classes—with some properties dropping in value and others increasing.
It also doesn’t account for any other tax increases council may have to make to cover inflation or other costs which may come up during the budget process.
“We have been communicating with MPAC,” town treasurer Laurie Lindberg said during a special committee of the whole meeting Monday at the Civic Centre.
“We still don’t have the answers that make sense to us yet,” she noted.
Lindberg added the shifts in assessment between classes and within classes is “very concerning.”
“We’re going to have to look at our budget different than we normally have because normally we have a higher assessment,” she explained.
“We have a little bit of growth each year and our assessment is a little bit higher than the previous year, and we’ve started off with a little bit lower tax rate.
“This year, we’re upside down,” she stressed. “We have a much higher tax rate starting out.
“We’ve never been down this path before,” Lindberg warned.
“This is a sharp drop in assessment that’s going to impact everyone in the community,” agreed Fort Frances CAO Doug Brown.
Administration is trying to line up a meeting with MPAC, and get its officials to come to Fort Frances during the week of Feb. 6-10 to explain the assessment changes to the public and to council, as well as to get everyone’s questions answered.
“We want to get it out in the open because this is new,” Brown said.
Mayor Roy Avis noted that when the assessment dropped for the Resolute mill here, the town only had to deal with one customer and was able to work out an agreement to somewhat mitigate the tax loss.
“That was something we could work with,” he said.
“[But] this particular situation now, we’re dealing with 3,000 customers on the residential side—some that are going to see a decrease and some are going to tremendous increases.
“We definitely are in uncharted waters because whatever we do, there’s going to be some winners and there’s going to be some losers,” Mayor Avis added.
“As council, I think we’ve really got to sit down and, as we walk through the budget, make sure we don’t leave any stone unturned,” he noted.
“I know myself I’m at a loss.”
Lindberg said it’s her understanding there’s no way the town can appeal and say council does not agree with the returned assessment roll for 2017.
“If we want to appeal, we would have to pay our $125, or whatever the fee is, to appeal each and every property—just like an individual if they want to appeal their assessment,” she explained.
Coun. Paul Ryan said he’s upset with MPAC.
“I don’t know what computer program they’re running to do this,” he fumed.
“I know it’s not a physical assessment of these properties,” he added. “It’s some formulated thing some whiz kid came up with and it certainly turned the apple cart over.
But Coun. Ryan also said he’s glad MPAC may come here so it can help explain to the public that they, not the town, controls property assessments.
“A lot of people don’t understand that,” he stressed.
“Maybe having these people come to a council meeting, on TV, might explain it further that we’re not the bad guys here—we’re just trying to clean up the mess, actually.”
Coun. Doug Kitowski said the town has dealt with MPAC before and “gotten nowhere,” and he’s doesn’t know if there’s any point to meeting with them.
“That’s just a waste of time because they’re not going to do anything,” he charged.
But Mayor Avis felt it will be worthwhile to talk to MPAC and the Ministry of Finance, especially if several other regional municipalities in the same boat band together.
Couns. Ken Perry and Wendy Brunetta will bring the matter to a Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association meeting next week, which MPAC reps are expected to attend, and then afterwards bring up the issue with Municipal Affairs minister Bill Mauro.
Councillors also will bring their assessment concerns to the Ministry of Finance during a delegation at the Rural Ontario Municipal Association’s annual conference in Toronto at the end of the month.
Part of the overall assessment drop has been the assessment reductions made for larger retail stores across Ontario, including Canadian Tire and Walmart.
Consumer market changes, primarily online shopping, are among the factors taken into consideration by MPAC in its decisions.
