Response To: Premier Delays Key Rulings
By: Royston James, Toronto Star
Date: August 16, 2006
From: Dave Barnett, Corporate Secretary,
Canadian National Taxpayers Coalition (CNTC)

With great interest I read your column in the Toronto Star regarding the Premier’s decision to delay, or postpone, the next property assessment by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC).

Your perceptions on the most part were very correct. Downloading, of costs for services, like ambulances, roads, or welfare are devastating the small towns and cities of Ontario. Unlike Toronto, these smaller locations do not have the “economies of scale” to support the costs of building, repairing or maintaining the downloaded services. Simply put, they do not have enough people, or businesses to pay the bill! The Ontario Government has many ways of raising money (income tax, gas tax, road taxes, lotteries, fees etc.) Municipalities have but one method—property taxes! That’s why it’s so expensive!

Premier McGuinty has made (what he thinks to be) a smart political decision by postponing the next assessment. Since coming into power, the Liberals have done nothing with property assessments. Admitting it now, will admit a failure so the policy of delaying any action for 2 years is a good way to avoid the confrontation. In reality, he is admitting that the Government does not know how to create property assessments, a problem that could easily backfire in the forthcoming election. Mr.McGuinty says he needs the time to implement the Ombudsman’s report. Of the 22 recommendations made by the Ontario’s Ombudsman, Andre Marin, only 4 were a little more than just “housekeeping”. Unfortunately, as our presenters travel about Ontario, we find thousands of “horror stories” where particularly seniors, those on fixed incomes, retirees or frequently just common folk are being forced to sell their property because of high taxes, some with double or triple digit increases!

In simple terms, both MVA and downloading make no sense. We are being taxed on an unexplained assessment basis. MPAC is saying that it knows the value of most properties, most of which they have never seen or inspected. Thousands and thousands of property appeals last year indicate that few ratepayers agree with MPAC. CNTC believes that the basis for property taxation must be accurate, measurable and not some hypothetical computer-generated amount.

Downloading results in municipalities paying for programs that are clearly the responsibility of upper levels of government (like ambulances which should be the responsibility of the Ministry of Health).

I’m sure Ontarians won’t forget when it comes to the next election!
In your article, you said, “replacing it with something else—Ontario would be travelling down a road not taken by many and one that will lead to as many furious property owners as the current system delivers.” This simply isn’t true! CNTC is recommending a “cost approach” method of calculating your assessment. This would take approximately 2 weeks to implement using the 2 billion pieces of information MPAC has on file.

Under this system, the owner would have some control on changes in assessment. Someone could also explain how the assessment is created, instead of the very complicated, “multiple regression analysis”, now used by MPAC.
There would be a more “human approach” where concepts like “depreciation” are also considered in the assessment process.

Market Value Assessment (MVA) was brought in from the United States. Many states are now “revolting” against this method that bases taxes on how much someone else can afford for a property in your neighbourhood.

In June of 2005, our organization was invited by the National Taxpayers’ Union to Washington D.C. for a conference regarding property taxation and the effects of MVA. This spring, we were invited to the World Taxpayers’ Conference in Vienna Austria, where many other parts of the world are struggling to rid themselves of MVA. Let me assure you that there is a better way—one that eliminates the downloading and returns to a more “human” approach to calculating assessment on your property.

I’m told that an “average property” in Toronto could likely have a tax bill of
$1000.00 / year. This is really about the true cost of the services you receive from the municipality (like garbage removal, road plowing, grading, fire protection etc).

Wouldn’t it be refreshing to not be constantly reminded that the municipalities need more money- something we hear in the media every week? Wouldn’t it be great if municipalities were funded properly through their taxation process? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a system that pays for what you get?

CNTC now has nearly a million supporters. Prestigious groups like the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation (CTF) and the Canadian Association for Retired People (CARP) are all in support of CNTC’s suggestions. Fundamentally we would like the Minister of Finance to establish a conference of all the stakeholders to discuss MVA and recommend changes. We have promoted this action but we are still waiting!

I urge your readers to contact CNTC at our website of www.cntccanada.ca , our e-mail address of cntc@primus.ca, or phone (705) 696 2356 for more information. We are a completely volunteer group who need more help to rid Ontario of MVA and move to a new fairer, clearer, and accountable system of property assessment. We would be very pleased to meet with all those who are interested, or make a presentation to a group of concerned citizens.

WORKING TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!