THUNDER BAY -- The province is appealing assessments for a pair of its properties in Thunder Bay.
Appeals for 615 James Street, $8.4 million, going back to 2009-12. The James Street property, which houses several provincial departments including the Ministry of Transportation and OPP, is also under appeal for 2012-16.
The 421 James Street property, known as mini Queen's Park and valued in 2015 at $2.5 million. That appeal is for 2012-16.
The province has 48 properties in Thunder Bay. The city says Ontario had appealed other properties but those matters were withdrawn.
Thunder Bay has been among several other municipalities in the region calling for the provincial government to change how property assessments are appealed.
City manager Tim Commisso has said an entire industry now exists that seeks lower property assessments for large industrial and commercial properties by taking decisions from the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation to the ARB.
There are currently around 200 non-residential and seven residential properties under appeal in the city.
Infrastructure Ontario says it routinely reviews MPAC assessments and files appeals for various reasons. Those include building area or land area, tax class or appraisal methodology.
"To determine an appropriate value, with the goal of correcting the assessment regardless of the resulting tax outcome," spokeswoman Bianca Lankheit said.
"This is standard practice across Ontario - municipalities also file assessment appeals against provincial properties seeking increases in their tax revenue."
