Taxes and the need for updated property assessments were the order of the day for Simcoe County council Tuesday morning.
Council members sat through an information session discussing tax policy matters that rest with the upper-tier municipality, with the bulk of their questions revolving around the thorny issue of increasingly outdated property assessments.
Peter Frise, vice-president of corporate and client services at Municipal Tax Equity Consultants, provided a presentation to councillors on March 26 to analyze county tax rates and ratios, which raised issues surrounding the need for revised property value assessments from the province.
The two main discussion points were annual tax levy policies and tax rebate programs.
Council was urged to maintain the county's tax rebates, to address specific taxpayer circumstances, including rebates for registered charities, as well as relief from tax increases for low-income seniors and people with disabilities. Council members agreed to work on a new bylaw to repeal the existing one in order to help fix those concerns.
Several councillors asked Frise about property tax assessments, which have a significant impact on the county’s annual revenue.
The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) is responsible for assessing and classifying more than five million properties in Ontario. The property assessments MPAC provides are what municipalities use to base their property taxes needed to pay for community services.
MPAC was created in 1998 in response to inequality in property assessments that permeated throughout the province prior to the late 1990s. Market-value assessments had been available to municipalities in Ontario since the 1970s, but on a voluntary basis, which allowed for discrepancies from town to town.
Frise noted 2021 should have been the first year of a new reassessment cycle, with values being updated to reflect a January 2019 market.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the provincial government delayed the 2020 assessment update.
On Aug. 16, 2023, the government filed a regulation to amend the Assessment Act, extending the postponement of a provincewide reassessment through the end of the 2021-24 assessment cycle.
Property assessments for the 2023 and 2024 property tax years will be based on Jan. 1, 2016 values.
County councillors cited "pent-up tax shifts" as 2016 assessed values are far from present-day figures.
Due to the discrepancy, council members heard that increases in tax revenue are carried by new taxpayers, or those who changed the state, use or condition of their property.
During a question-and-answer session at the end of Frise's presentation, county council asked for more information about the four-year delay with tax reassessments by the province.
Collingwood Mayor Yvonne Hamlin said she was concerned about newer properties being assessed much higher than older properties, saying taxes on the newer properties can be twice that of the older property of similar size.
She was also concerned about the significant tax shifts which are set to happen when reassessments continue in the single-family home sector.
“The more reassessments are delayed, the more shifts we’re going to see,” Hamlin added.
Midland Mayor Bill Gordon asked about assessment fairness going forward.
“One of the things we found back in 2016, with big box stores, almost unanimously they went and challenged their assessments and won,” he said. “It was like they were all in a room together explaining how they did it, and that has a really negative impact on our residential taxes."
Innisfil Mayor Lynn Dollin said she would like to see reassessment move forward.
"We'll just keep pushing in that direction," she said.
Frise's presentation was received for information.
