CAPTR

• « News Index

National Post: Ratepayers coalition wants assessment hikes capped at 5%

Lee Greenberg

CanWest News Service
April 28, 2006

TORONTO — A new coalition representing as many as 500,000 taxpayers is calling on Ontario's Liberal government to cap residential assessment increases at 5%, as pressure to fix the province's property tax system mounts.

At a Queen's Park news conference yesterday, the group hinted it would make the current assessment system an issue in the 2007 provincial election.

Spokesman Bob Topp said property owners on fixed incomes, retirees in particular, were being "squeezed out" of home ownership by skyrocketing assessments, which lead to higher property taxes.

Those valuations, ostensibly based on current selling prices, have hit hardest in fashionable neighbourhoods and prized waterfront communities as Ontario's hot real estate market continues to boom.

"If assessments continue their uneven, unpredictable and often double-digit gallop, property ownership in many parts of the province will become unaffordable for large numbers of Ontarians," said Mr. Topp, a spokesman for the Coalition After Property Tax Reform, or CAPTR, a lobby representing 700 ratepayer groups. "The current system taxes unrealized gains, cuts across all income levels and has caused severe financial hardship."

A Toronto resident, Mr. Topp has received assessments of his Muskoka cottage that saw the value jump by 50% and 104% on different occasions in recent years. Half of all property owners faced increases over 10% this year, he said, and one fifth of Ontarians faced increases of over 20%.

"That's just wrong," he told reporters at Queen's Park. "That's why we're calling for annual assessment increases to be capped at 5%."

Mr. Topp cited a survey by Ipsos Reid that showed nearly eight out of 10 Ontarians agree a cap on property tax increases is reasonable. Conservative MPP Tim Hudak introduced the measure in a private member's bill last month.

Premier Dalton McGuinty, who last week declared his government "seized" with the issue of reforming the current system, said Finance Minister Dwight Duncan will consider a number of changes.

"I can say that, again, we are looking at all of our options with respect to how we might improve Ontario's property tax system," he told the legislature.

However, those changes likely will not include a cap. A spokesman said Mr. Duncan opposes that measure because he believes it will disadvantage lower-growth neighbourhoods. "The minister has said many times that it's not something we're considering," spokesman Sean Hamilton said yesterday.

Residential property values increased by 12.7% this taxation year according to the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC), the government agency responsible for administering 4.4 million properties annually.

That agency came under attack last month by provincial ombudsman Andre Marin, who called its practices "unreasonable, unjust, oppressive and wrong."

Mr. Marin said MPAC's computer system pumps out thousands of assessments every year that bear little relationship to market values.

© National Post 2006

• « News Index