Council passes tax hikes

Property owners in all classes will see a small tax increase this year after town council passed the 2006 budget at its regular meeting Monday night.
As previously reported, taxes for residential ratepayers will go up 2.6 percent while commercial-occupied will jump by .85 percent, said Information Technology manager Darryl Allan, who gave a presentation at Monday night’s meeting breaking down various aspects of the budget.
Multi-residential will go up by 2.87 percent in 2006 while industrial and large industrial-occupied will increase 1.1 percent.
A one percent tax increase yields an additional $80,590 for the town.
The 2005 notional tax rate for residential properties (including education) is 0.0170251. This means a house assessed at $100,000 would be subject to property taxes of $1,702.51.
A 2.6 percent tax hike (including education at .0174686) on residential means a $26.60 increase to your tax bill if your house is assessed at $60,000, $44.35 at $100,000, and $66.53 at $150,000.
The 2006 budget is balanced at $20,763.834—$641,884 more than in 2005.
This total includes a budgeted debenture and loan payments of $744,452 for the general fund taxation and $228,385 from the water and sewer funds.
This also includes $5,000 in expenses to finalize the condominium project.
Based on 2005 assessment and tax rates, the condos are expected to generate $86,154 in property taxes this year.
The budget also includes a user fee schedule, which town council had approved earlier this year. This saw an average increase of two percent.
The 2006 budget was approved and passed as a bylaw by a vote of 6-1, with Coun. Roy Avis opposed to it.
Also at Monday night’s meeting, council:
•heard requests for support from Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship chair Jim Cumming for this year’s tourney, slated July 23-29 (the requests were referred to all executive committees for their recommendations);
•agreed to a request from the Northwestern Health Unit to proclaim May 12, 2006 as “Canada Health Day 2006, Public Health Working for You,” in the Town of Fort Frances;
•agreed to a request from the Ontario Family Fishing Weekend steering committee to proclaim July 7-9, 2006 as “Ontario Family Fishing Weekend” in the Town of Fort Frances;
•agreed to a request from the Ontario Nurses Association to proclaim May 8-14, 2006 as “Nursing Week” in the Town of Fort Frances;
•referred a request from Pauline Perreault for financial support of the Tim Perreault Memorial Golf Tournament to the Administration and Finance executive committee for its recommendation;
•passed a bylaw to approve an agreement with the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund. Corp. for a co-op work placement;
•passed a bylaw to approve an agreement with the Minister of Canadian Heritage for financing of a museum capital project under the Cultural Spaces Canada Program; and
•agreed to a request from the Regional Municipality of Durham for support of its resolution regarding the removal of barriers to family physicians.