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Average property value up $40,000 since 2012

Local property values increased 5.6 per cent per year between 2012 and 2016 but the councillor for the city's poorest ward worries his constituents will take on a greater share of the tax burden.
Paul Pugh
McKellar Coun. Paul Pugh (right) listens to a response from Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) account manager Chad Turner during a deputation the latter gave to city council detailing increasing property values on Monday.

THUNDER BAY -- The average local home is worth $40,000 more than it was in 2012. 

Thunder Bay's residential properties increased an average of 5.6 per cent per year between 2012 and 2016 based on values increasing while 5,556 homes changed ownership. The average Ontario home increased 4.5 per cent per year over the same time period. Thunder Bay's multi-residential property values increased 8.4 per cent.

The value of local commercial properties increased 8.8 per cent between 2012 and 2016 while industrial properties in Thunder Bay increased 27 per cent.

Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) account manager Chad Tanner said small business is driving industrial growth.

"There's stability in pieces such as the mining and forestry sectors which is creating business growth and opportunities in that particular industrial sector. It's driving some of the smaller players to expand," he said.  

One city councillor is worried, however, over whether those property valuations will mean the city's poorest homeowners will bear a greater share of the municipal tax burden.  

McKellar Coun. Paul Pugh challenged Tanner, pointing out the 9.6 per cent median increase to home values in the city's poorest ward increased more than any other Thunder Bay ward.

"Anybody who knows Thunder Bay knows the median or the mean is lower in McKellar than it is in other wards," Pugh said. 

"The mean, of course, is a statistical abstraction but you take a walk around town and you'll see what we mean. It has a lower incomes and lower property values and it's outrageous that that's the area that has the highest assessment increase." 

"I just don't buy it." 

Moreover, Pugh argued, new provincial legislation limits council's ability to increase tax rates on commercial and industrial properties. 

"That will mean higher property taxes. We have no choice. Because of provincial policy, we can't shift those residential property classes because they've said we can't increase those property taxes," he said.

"That's what we used to do when we tried to equalize taxes, we'd shift them onto the profitable properties -- commercial, industrial, multi-residential -- so that those people who are making lots of money off their properties would pay a higher share. It was a more equitable thing.

"Now, the province is saying we can't do that. Now, we're stuck."

Residential property value increases by ward (2012-2016)*

Thunder Bay average residential percentage change 5.6 per cent

- McKellar          + 9.2 per cent 

Current River  + 6.6 per cent

- Westfort          + 6.4 per cent

- Red River       + 5.9 per cent

- Northwood     + 4.8 per cent

- McIntyre         + 4.3 per cent

- Neebing         + 4.3 per cent 

* Editor's note: These figures do not translate directly to a municipal tax increase. Council will receive a tax rate and ratio report in May as it applies to the 2017 municipal budget.

For more information on property values, visit About My Property.





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