Published: June 2006

At the Annual General Meeting of the Sharbot Lake Property Owners’ Association in July 2005 we confirmed that the Tax Committee’s work would be absorbed into the regular business of the SLPOA executive. This was because the SLPOA executive and the Tax Committee membership had become one and the same.

We also agreed that the orientation of the SLPOA towards property tax improvements would be focused at the Provincial Government level. Whereas some of the Association’s members believe the SLPOA should pursue the Municipal Government for changes in its priority of services or for structural changes in the municipal tax regime to reduce the tax load of lakefront owners, the consensus was that the greatest challenge – far and away – is to achieve changes to the fundamentals of the provincial property tax regime.

At the time of the Annual General Meeting in 2005 we learned that the new provincial Ombudsman, Mr. Marin, proposed to do a critical review of the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC). Your Tax Committee members were not sure about how much a difference he could really make. We had learned over the two years of our work together that the accuracy of MPAC’s figures is only a very small part of the problem. Even a fully satisfactory MPAC performance and evaluation would not change the fundamentals. No matter what we think of MPAC assessments of value, virtually every one of us property owners would put our properties on the market for more than what MPAC says our properties are worth regardless!

We were pleased to learn, therefore, that the Premier of Ontario has “heard what Ontario is saying” and seems prepared to ask some fundamental questions:

- Would it be more fair if property taxes are increased on a market value basis only when a property actually changes hands, and otherwise increased only by inflation?
- Would it make more sense to limit what property taxes must pay for, and raise revenues for social and health services from income taxes?
- Should property taxes attach to square meters of residential space rather than to market value?

We who were formally members of the SLPOA Tax Committee dare to take a little bit of credit for the fact that the Premier has heard what Ontario has been saying. Heaven knows, we used all kinds of opportunities to get our points across.

While the work of the Tax Committee is now largely done, the interest of the SLPOA executive in property tax questions is far from dead. As the Premier and his Government begin the examination of fundamental options, the likelihood that the rather special situation of property owners in rural settings will be taken into account is small. The likelihood is even smaller that the situation of communities like our own, where lakefront property owners contribute proportionately far more to Municipal tax coffers than other residents, will be taken into account.

The SLPOA tried to help craft a letter from the Municipal Government to the Provincial Government which would bring our special circumstances to the Premier’s attention. To our knowledge, while the SLPOA drafted a proposed letter for this, the Municipal Government has been unable to build a consensus around what should be said. To help craft such a letter remains one of the outstanding projects that the Tax Committee, now the SLPOA executive, remains committed to.