Industrial tax reassessments won't stop with Northern Ontario, says mayor Keith Hobbs.
City officials were in Toronto last week to continue fighting mill reassessments across Northern Ontario, including Thunder Bay, which threaten to take millions of dollars out of municipal tax bases.
Resolute in Thunder Bay used to pay $106 million. Currently at $74 million, the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation recently put that number at around $35 million, which would be a major loss to the city's $159 million tax base.
"The whole thing's a mess," Hobbs said. "It's absolutely ridiculous when a mill is paying less in taxes than Intercity mall. It's bizarre."
Using a model approach, Hobbs said MPAC is basing these reassessment off of mill properties in places like Virginia. That is not the way to do it.
And if a model approach is being used for mills, it won't be too long before its used on other industries in Southern Ontario. When it hits auto plants in Oakville and Oshawa, oil refineries in Sarnia or the steel industry in Hamilton, then maybe the province will start taking the issue seriously.
"Perhaps people will wake up," he said. "Who's next if the mills are doing it. It's going to cause chaos."
And Hobbs thinks that chaos is going to land squarely on the backs of residential property owners. Some places like Terrace Bay are looking to negotiate with industry, which caused long-time mayor Michael King to resign recently. Hobbs said he applauds King's approach.
"I don't think we should be making deals like this," he said.
Municipalities need to stand up and fight. Thunder Bay has taken it to the Assessment Review Board, which will meet again in January.
"We're going to plow ahead and hopefully win this," Hobbs added.
