CAPTR

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Remarks for News Conference at Queen's Park Media Studio;
Bob Topp, Spokesperson

A new citizens' coalition with support across the province of Ontario has been formed to fight for reforms to the property tax system.

April 27, 2006

TORONTO — We are the Coalition After Property Tax Reform, or CAPTR. We already represent some 700 community and ratepayer associations whose memberships include hundreds of thousands of homeowners across Ontario.

Our mission is simple: using a powerful, province-wide coalition of Ontario residents, we will lobby the Provincial Government to put a 5 per cent cap on residential assessment increases to reduce volatility in property taxes.

We believe that is a fair and reasonable goal, one shared by a significant majority of Ontarians.

In a survey done by Ipsos Reid for one of our member organizations last year, nearly 8 out of 10 Ontarians agreed that "it is reasonable to put a cap on the rate of residential property tax increases all across Ontario."

About 65 per cent of Ontario citizens are property owners: We are fighting for their right to have a fair and predictable property tax regime.

We're not asking for a rollback. We're not asking for a tax freeze.

We're simply asking for a 5% cap on annual assessment increases.

Our crusade for property assessment and tax fairness is one we believe will resonate with the majority of Ontarians, most of whom are property owners and most of whom are NOT wealthy.

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.

We do not believe the McGuinty government wants that.

The fact is, many Ontarians, particularly those on fixed incomes, are already being squeezed out byescalating property taxes. This is a tragedy.

The rising real estate market, when combined with the current Municipal Property Assessment Corporation system, has resulted in massive assessment and tax increases for countless property owners across the province.

Property owners are not given appropriate explanations for how their assessments are done.

The system is formula-driven, with little local input, and is incomprehensible to most people.

Huge, inexplicable variations within local areas are commonplace.

The appeal process is exhausting and confusing to most people and must be repeated with each "rogue assessment".

The current system taxes unrealized gains, cuts across all income levels and has caused severe financial hardship.

More than half the assessments delivered to Ontario property owners last fall for this taxation year increased by over 10% and one fifth were up over 20%.

Some individual property owners have received assessment increases of 50% to more than 100 %. In rural and waterfront parts of the province these increases are causing massive shifts of tax between groups of property owners.

That's just wrong.

Here in Toronto, assessments rose by an average of 12 per cent. The increases in various wards range from a high of close to 20% to a low of 5%.

Each new assessment, depending on where markets are hot, will bring about shifts of tax from one neighbourhood to another.

All parts of the city, and of the province, are vulnerable due to the volatility of real estate markets.

That's why we are calling for annual assessment increases to be capped at 5%. We also believe that the 2004 assessment should be used as a base. Capping would reduce the volatility inherent in the present system, while allowing assessments to rise in line with historic long term real estate market trends.

We are not a partisan group. We have allies across the political spectrum.

In fact, some of our concerns are echoed by the non-partisan Ontario Ombudsman, Andre Marin.

On March 28, Mr. Marin released his report along with 22 recommendations, saying at the time that "the credibility of MPACs evaluation process simply cannot be restored without altering how it operates on a day-to-day basis and changing key aspects of its corporate culture."

CAPTR thanks Mr. Marin for his excellent report and recommendations. We hope the Ministry of Finance implements all of them.

But in addition to fixing MPACs attitudes and methods, Ontario property owners need something that only the government can deliver, and that is an immediate 5% cap on assessment increases.

The voices that have been raised against the current assessment regime cut across party lines.

PC Finance critic Tim Hudak introduced a private member's bill in March that would see property assessment capped at 5 per cent. As Mr. Hudak noted:

"Rapidly increasing property assessments and resultant property tax increases are simply unaffordable to the beleaguered Ontario taxpayer."

Mr. Hudak wants to use the 2005 assessment as the base year.We believe that the base line should be the 2004 assessment, but we are otherwise in support of his bill.

The Ontario NDP launched a Task Force on Assessment and Property Tax last year and has been holding consultations across the province.

They expect to release a report in the near future. In the words of their web site, www.ouchassessment.ca, "All too often assessments have risen dramatically. And just as often, getting an assessment notice is a source of frustration. Predicting how much property tax you are going to pay, this year and next, is practically impossible until the tax bill arrives."

In short - it feels like the system is not transparent, not accountable, and not fair. It can put homeowners at risk of losing their house, and businesses owners at risk of closing or laying off employees."

In the face of this rising chorus of concern about our property tax system, Premier McGuinty, in an article in the Ottawa Citizen just a few days ago, was said to clearly recognize the need for major reform.

He said "We are going to take some time to find a better way to address this and whatever we come up with will also be the subject of extensive consultation".

We say that's excellent news but we need action now. It seems all are agreed that the system is broken. Get assessments capped now and then let's have a serious study.

In appearing here today, we are signaling to Ontarians that we are prepared to help lead the fight against unfair property assessment.

We urge members of ratepayers groups, homeowners associations and other groups who want a fair assessment system to join with us.

We will be back here in the fall, to announce the results of a survey of provincial members of parliament. We will be sending a simple, straightforward survey to all MPPs, asking each of them whether or not they favour a cap on annual property assessment increases.

In conclusion, let me say that we hope that the government, facing as it does a fight for reelection in a little more than a year, will listen to the legitimate concerns of Ontario homeowners and move swiftly to deal with an issue that has begun to spread like wildfire across the province.

I would like to introduce Bill Phillips, head of the Federation of Urban Neighbourhoods-Ontario, one of our partners and representing over 75 urban community and ratepayer organizations across Ontario.

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