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Opposition MPPs cite CAPTR and WRAFT in challenge to Liberal Government's property tax policy

The following is an excerpt from Official Report of Debates (Hansard) held in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, First Session, 39th Parliament, on Tuesday, April 15, 2008.

PROPERTY TAXATION (p. 1059-1060)

Mr. Tim Hudak: A question to the Premier: As you know, this fall taxpayers will receive a triple whammy of property assessment increases all at once. This of course is courtesy of Dalton McGuinty’s cynical move to freeze assessments until, coincidentally, after the last election. Today, the Coalition After Property Tax Reform and the Waterfront Ratepayers After Fair Taxation released a report by respected real estate firm Cushman and Wake-field LePage to determine the likely outcome for Ontario homeowners. The result: Homeowners can expect up to a 154% increase in their assessments this fall. In light of this dramatic news, Premier, will you agree to cap property assessment increases to protect Ontario home-owners?

Hon. Dalton McGuinty: To the Minister of Finance.

Hon. Dwight Duncan: We don’t share the same view as the opposition on capping. No, we won’t do that. That would have the effect of shifting the property tax burden from high-growth areas to low-growth areas. We don’t think it’s the right answer over time.

In fact, even the member himself has said that this was a problem his government created. And in the St. Cath-arines Standard, March 2006, the member sitting behind him, Mr Yakabuski, when asked if the former govern-ment under Premier Harris bungled the property tax evaluation system, said, “Yes, it seems apparently so.”

We agree with Mr. Hudak and Mr. Yakabuski that in fact they bungled the system. We think their proposal now would in fact make it worse. We don’t support capping. In fact we have a four-year assessment phase-in which we think will help the average Ontario property taxpayer manage assessment changes.

Mr. Tim Hudak: The minister well knows that for assessments at that level, if you phase it in over years, that’s up to a 40% increase per year. Your Toronto-area MPPs are going to be quite alarmed at assessment in-creases, predicted to be up to 102% in St. Paul’s, 51% in Willowdale. Minister, this means whether they live in Grimsby, Ottawa or London, homeowners can expect high double-digit or triple-digit increases in the property assessments this September. The Homestead Act is before the Assembly today. It would cap skyrocketing assessments at a maximum of 5% a year. Given this result from the real estate firm, will the minister agree to cap assessments before taxpayers get hit with a triple whammy this fall?

Hon. Dwight Duncan: No, we won’t. Just to be very clear, what the member is suggesting, we simply do not share that view. In fact, assessment changes don’t neces-sarily lead to property tax increases.

But you know what he could have helped us with? Today, just an hour ago, he voted against a property tax grant for seniors: $1 billion dollars over five years. He voted against it, and every member of that caucus just voted against it. And they voted against the senior property tax credit grant not on one occasion but three occasions. You messed the system up. We’re certainly not going to rely on you for advice now. We reject capping, and why wouldn’t you have voted to give our senior citizens a billion dollars in property tax relief over the next five years? You guys just don’t get it.

PROPERTY TAXATION (p. 1061-1062)

Mr. Michael Prue: My question is to the Premier. Today, the Coalition After Property Tax Reform released a report showing that in a number of neighbourhoods in Toronto, house prices went up over 50% in just three years, between 2004 and 2007.

Those on fixed incomes, including a great many sen-iors, simply can’t afford to be hit with three years of price increases that will come their way this fall. The $250 in the budget simply won’t cut it. The NDP has proposed a freeze-til-sale assessment model that would take the volatility completely out of the system.

Will you continue doing next to nothing, the doing next to nothing that puts people at risk of losing their homes, or will you commit to something that really works, like a freeze-til-sale system, today?

Hon. Dalton McGuinty: To the Minister of Finance.

Hon. Dwight Duncan: We disagree with the mem-ber’s proposal to freeze assessments. We have brought in a four-year reassessment phase-in.

What the member opposite alleges would occur is in fact the opposite. In fact, it would create inequities right on blocks within communities and across municipalities. We don’t think that is the right way to go. We believe that the four-year phase-in that we have proposed, coupled with the tools that municipalities have available to them, can help address the issue, and that these assessments won’t in fact necessarily lead to increases in the property taxes of residents.

Mr. Michael Prue: This is an answer that is rich coming from a party that before the last election froze the assessments for two years to get you over that hump.

According to Bob Topp of the coalition, “Phasing in the increases may help ease the pain, but it doesn’t heal the wound.” And the wound he’s talking about is the extreme volatility in any market-based assessment sys-tem such as Ontario’s.

On this side of the House, in the NDP, we believe that seniors and others on fixed incomes shouldn’t be forced out of their long-time homes by the arbitrary volatility of property markets. You must think so too because you put something in the budget.

Will you commit to freeze-til-sale today, or will you continue to allow many people to be at risk of being forced out of their homes by a deeply flawed assessment system?

Hon. Dwight Duncan: The member opposite is wrong. Our system will not create volatility.

What is rich is a member who one and a quarter hours ago voted against a $1-billion package of property tax relief for seniors that kicks in this year. Why did you vote that way an hour ago? Why didn’t you support that clause in our bill? I would say to him. And I would remind the member that he also voted against the senior property tax credit in the 2006 budget and the 2007 budget.

This government has set about to bring stability to property taxes, stability to assessments, to give pre-dictability for our seniors and to give them property tax relief; 550,000 seniors across this province will benefit from a $500 grant next year, and you, sir, voted against it one and one quarter hours ago. Shame on you. Support this government’s property tax reform.

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