Free Press

“spreading the word” December 17, 2002

Municipal pressure intensifies
Many ratepayers are “screaming blue murder now,” councillor says

Ontario municipalities are becoming more and more critical of the way a downsized and restructured Municipal Property Assessment Corporation is (not) serving their needs.

In the Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury, some 170 properties that are new in 2002 did not make it on to the town’s assessment roll, Treasurer Susan Turnbull wrote in a report to council. Neither did some properties that were occupied in 2001. Owners of those properties will have to pay three years’ taxes – likely around $7,500 each – in one year, Turnbull said.

What does this mean to the finances of a smallish community? “The estimate of the assessment that MPAC has decided not to include in the returned roll is approximately $42,500,000 for Bradford West Gwillimbury alone” (emphasis added).

Turnbull also slammed MPAC for cutting off access to assessors. “Treasury staff has no access to assessors, unlike the past when a residential and commercial assessor were assigned to Bradford West Gwillimbury and provided a knowledgeable resource which was used on a regular (often daily) basis....”

Town council forwarded Turnbull’s report to Ontario Finance Minister Janet Ecker on Dec. 2 “to indicate to her the Town’s concerns about the quality of assessment services.”

Hamilton Township CAO Peggy Cramp says MPAC is “failing and failing badly,” the Cobourg Daily Star reports. Cramp describes a situation in which mobile home park owners are being forced to become unpaid property assessors because mobile home parks are being assessed as one property. Assessments for individual mobile homes are no longer being provided, she says.

In the Township of Asphodel-Norwood, the township is losing $4 million in assessed value because 98 building permits have not been assessed for tax value by MPAC, according to a report in the Peterborough Examiner.

In West Nipissing, councillor Guy Ethier describes four near-identical houses whose tax assessments vary from a reduction of 10 per cent to an increase of 56 per cent, the North Bay Nugget reports. Councillor Robert Marier says MPAC promised a year ago to reassess the community of Lavigne, but has still done nothing. “Many of the people there are screaming blue murder now,” he says.

“There’s no doubt that cutting front-line staff will have a negative impact on customer service,” LaSalle councillor John Tedesco told the Windsor Star.

Free Press is published by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union  www.opseu.org  

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Previous Issues:

December 17, 2002 Over 50 municipalities voice concerns over MPAC restructuring
November 8, 2002 Municipal officials critical of MPAC changes