Speech by Bob Topp to Muskoka Lakes Association Annual Meeting
July 23, 2004
I get a lot of emails these days. I'd like to read to you one I got a few days ago.
"Dear Mr. Topp: I wonder if you could help me out. My father and mother-in-law live on Balsam Lake in The Kawarthas. They live on land that has been in the family for 5 generations. They have raised 9 children on one income on this land and now continue to treasure it with their grandchildren. As many people on Ontario waterfronts, their taxes are skyrocketing and may force them to lose the land they hoped to hand down to their next generations. My father-in-law fought overseas in WWII and may now have his land 'taken' by the country he was fighting to protect."
I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you today.
Recognizing growing concerns about unfairness in the property tax regime, the District of Muskoka three years ago appointed a District-wide task force. Two years ago the Muskoka Municipal Taxation Task Force completed its report. They had debated long and hard and eventually agreed on a number of proposals to make the property tax system more equitable. The Council of the District of Muskoka endorsed the proposals in the fall of 2002 and enacted two of the thirteen within their jurisdiction. Since then, almost two years have gone by, and all that's happened is that we've had two more assessments and the tax shift has worsened.
Average assessments for built-on properties on the three big lakes, Muskoka, Rosseau and Joseph are now five times the average for built-on properties not on water in the Township of Muskoka Lakes. This means average taxes are five times higher. Its obvious that assessment is not a fair basis for distributing property taxes. It relates neither to services received nor to ability to pay. It does not relate to how long you spend at your cottage and it clearly does not relate to what you paid for it.
The MLA, whose members are mostly on the three lakes, has had these concerns for many years. But recently the story has changed. Waterfront values are now rising on smaller lakes in Muskoka and across many parts of Ontario. This is evident in the last two assessments, in 2001 and 2003, in the Kawarthas, Haliburton, Georgian Bay and Lake Huron. From the Thousand Islands to the Lake of the Woods, waterfront values are rising faster than off water and property owners on water are picking up an increasing share of the tax load.
This is what led your association, together with the TMLRA and Lake of Bays Association to set up WRAFT, Waterfront Ratepayers after Fair Taxation, earlier this year. We were joined by FOCA, with its 550 member associations. WRAFT is now actively soliciting membership from associations across the province. If we can build a strong and unified voice then we have a real opportunity to go to Queens Park and achieve meaningful property tax reform.
Where to from here? WRAFT's first priority is to build its membership of associations. As of yesterday twenty-five associations have signed up. Our target is to have 100 member associations by year end. If you belong to a local waterfront association encourage them to join WRAFT. You can go to our website www.wraft.com to learn more about us and how to join, Our second priority is to raise sufficient funds to properly conduct the research, communications and lobbying efforts necessary to get the job done. Thirdly, we need to develop specific reform proposals. And finally, we have to lobby Queens Park. With respect to the proposals I should tell you that our focus is on ways to more fairly distribute property taxes. We believe this has a much greater chance of success than any attempt to reduce the total tax load. Any effort to upload costs such as education to the province, in our opinion, would not get to first base in the current fiscal environment in Ontario.
We feel the next year is critical to our efforts. The province has deferred the next assessment until 2005 and the recent budget contained some language which suggested they are willing to consider changes to the pure assessment-based system.
I'd like to finish by mentioning another problem with our present assessment system, which many of you may have experienced, and that is its volatility. I'll use my own property as an example. Over the past three assessments, the value first doubled, then inexplicably dropped 30% and finally last year increased 50%. This is, to say the least, not a great basis for determining my taxes. I've been in Muskoka all my life, my kids love our place, and could successfully share it when it becomes theirs. But unless things change, they quite simply won't be able to afford the taxes. This sort of situation, for many of us, provides sufficient motivation to keep up the fight.