THUNDER BAY -- Keith Hobbs thinks that Queen's Park will do something now that communities in the south are being hit by MPAC reassessments.
Windsor CAO Helga Ridel said her city has been trying to hold the line on taxes in a community that hasn't seen tax growth in years. But it was recently told that Chrysler's minivan plant would be taking $5.7 million back from Windsor after an MPAC assessment appeal. Ridel said MPAC is supposed to have a good basis and give communities rationale for the decisions it makes.
"How they're going about these things is starting to get concerning for us," she said.
"We're losing sight of what the rationale is behind the assessments."
And while she can't comment on specifics, other Windsor industries will be seeing the benefit of reassessments soon.
"Of course a hit like that makes a difference and will hurt us," Ridel said.
It's a similar story to what's been happening to Northern communities for more than a year. Hobbs tried to bring up MPAC at an Association of Municipalities Ontario meeting in August but his microphone was cut off.
"I said 'it's coming to a community near you'," he said.
Now that reassessment is hitting Windsor, Hobbs thinks it's only a matter of time before places like Oakville and Oshawa feel the pinch as well.
"That's when politicians and Queen's Park start taking notice," he said.
Reassessment has made Thunder Bay's $2.1 million in growth nearly disappear.
" You do all these good things and one stroke of the pen can wipe it out," he said.
The provincial ministry needs to stop the bleeding. It also needs to be concerned that with commercial and industrial properties setting a precedent the notion of economic obsolescence, which is allowing industry to get assessment based on production, could be house for homeowners as well.
"They could claim they don't use the whole house now so where does it stop?" Hobbs asked.
MPP and natural resources minister Bill Mauro (Lib., Thunder Bay-Atikokan) said he understands why communities have concerns about MPAC. A special committee was struck to bail out Northern communities hit by mill reassessments last year.
"It's entirely possible that you may see something like that on a go forward basis but at this point there's nothing in place," he said.
But it's important that cities remember they asked for this system and while it's not perfect, a majority of the MPAC board is made up of municipality members and decisions were made with enough time that cities had time to prepare.
"In terms of their immediate budget pressures, they would have been aware," Mauro said.
Thunder Bay recently passed a resolution to try and get a member of city council onto MPAC through AMO. Hobbs said he's hoping its him but at the least, the North somehow needs to be represented.
