Ratepayers Group Supports Ombudsman's Report, Calls for Moratorium on Property Assessments
Toronto, March 28, 2006 — The 100,000-member "Waterfront Ratepayers After Fair Taxation", (WRAFT), today welcomed the 22 recommendations for reforming Ontario's property assessment system made by Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin.
In view of the serious problems uncovered by the Ombudsman, WRAFT also called on Queen's Park to put a moratorium on the use of the 2005 property assessments in determining property taxes.
"The Ombudsman's recommendations, aimed at the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation, (MPAC), will make the whole assessment process more comprehensible and fairer to the property owner," says WRAFT spokesperson Bob Topp.
While agreeing with the many MPAC reforms suggested by the Ombudsman, Topp notes that they do not touch the fundamental issues of equity in the residential property tax system.
Topp wants the Ontario government to step in and refuse to permit the flawed 2005 property assessments carried out by MPAC to be used in determining property taxes.
"We now have proof that the assessment process is seriously flawed. As a result, the government should not implement the 2005 assessment." says the WRAFT spokesperson.
The 2005 assessment alone gave rise to assessment increases in excess of 30% for over 150,000 properties of which 2/3 were on waterfront. These increases were well in excess of real estate trends over the year and a half since the previous assessment and point to serious flaws in the MPAC assessment methodology.
"WRAFT believes that the capping of assessment increases, as proposed recently in a private members bill, and as used in many other jurisdictions in North America, would bring control and predictability to the property tax system," concludes Topp.
WRAFT is a coalition of 225 waterfront ratepayer associations across the province. It was formed two years ago to fight for a more equitable property tax system in Ontario.
Contact:
Robert Topp
Executive Director, WRAFT
416 929 9885
wraft@sympatico.ca
www.wraft.com