THUNDER BAY -- The president of the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association has long been awaiting reforms to the Provincial Land Tax.
However, despite a promise from Premier Kathleen Wynne and Ministry of Finance officials that changes would be made by the end of the year, Dave Canfield isn’t holding his breath.
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Canfield said during an interview at the Thunder Bay District Municipal League meeting.
“We were ecstatic back in the early 2000s, we were ecstatic in the 1990s, we were ecstatic back in the 1980s as were my predecessors back in the 1970s because they were going to bring in a Provincial Land Tax reform.”
Wynne made the pledge earlier this week in Toronto at the Ontario Good Roads Association and Rural Ontario Municipal Association combined conference.
The changes would help offset costs for municipalities in providing services which can be accessed by outlying unincorporated townships.
According to a Ministry of Finance report, the average northern municipal tax was $2,200, compared to the average Provincial Land Tax of $164 in an unincorporated area.
Canfield, who is also the mayor of Kenora, said there needs to be some sort of equalization.
“There’s no such thing as fairness in taxation. To me, I believe we live in a society where if you own two, three or four houses in a community or a couple in another community you should pay school tax on every one of them,” Canfield said.
“It needs to be brought up to a 2015 standard to be fair but at the same time start charging people responsibly. They get land ambulance services, they can come stay in our long-term care facilities, get policing services. There are just a lot of things that aren’t covered right now and they should be.”
While exact details about what the updated Provincial Land Tax will look like aren’t known, Canfield also hopes it addresses discrepancies about what is paid in different unincorporated townships.
Whether or not a property falls within a school boundary can have a significant impact on a tax bill.
“Even people in the unincorporated areas find it very unfair because some people are in a school tax boundary and some aren’t,” Canfield said.
Canfield said he was told at the meeting the province would build a committee involving both municipalities and unincorporated townships to set the new rates.
