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Some Wellington on the Lake residents are unable to apply for tax relief
Wellington on the Lake leasehold homeowners will now be able to take advantage of a property tax relief grant after being left out of the program for the past two years. Due to a change at the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC), homeowners on the leasehold side of Wellington On The Lake no longer have tax roll numbers as they now pay their taxes to Daimler Retirement Parks Ltd.—the owner of their lands. They have been excluded from applying for assistance as tax roll numbers are required for the grant.
Elaine Jackson, a leasehold homeowner in Wellington on the Lake, began working on the issue of property tax grants for leasehold owners over two years ago. At that time, County staff were unable to resolve the problem prior to last year’s deadline. However, Mayor Ferguson promised Jackson that he would do everything in his power to resolve the problem for WOTL residents in 2023.
This resulted in Mayor Steve Ferguson putting a motion on last week’s agenda, asking for a staff report to come back in October addressing the oversight.
“We have now been waiting two years for a solution to this problem. We have submitted many documents proving that we are the owners of our primary residences. The County has all the proof it needs to justify passing a motion tonight to fix our problem. Another staff report is not needed. We respectfully request that you get on with a solution,” said Jackson.
Prior to January 2017, the 182 leasehold homeowners in WOTL had a County tax roll number. In the fall of 2016, MPAC decided that these very residents should pay their property taxes to Daimler Retirement Parks Ltd, who would remit to the County under one roll number. The leasehold homeowners’ individual roll numbers were then cancelled. This meant that these homeowners did not meet the eligibility requirements for the County’s property tax relief fund.
Jackson told Council that Daimler Retirement Parks Ltd. tracks the taxes for all homes and issues each homeowner a receipt for taxes paid annually.
“This statement is accepted as proof of home ownership and of taxes paid to the municipality by Revenue Canada. If Revenue Canada realizes that we own our homes and that we pay taxes to the municipality, why does the County not recognize us accordingly?” asked Jackson. “We are proud taxpaying homeowners in this County.”
Mayor Ferguson acknowledged there had been dialogue between the two parties.
“We did talk about this last year. It arose again this year. The evidence that has been provided in the form of receipts for taxes paid to Daimler does exist. I think it is inconsistent that people who are in this position should not have the ability to apply for the property tax credit,” he said. Mayor Ferguson added that it is glaringly obvious to him that these homeowners should be eligible to apply for this support.
Councillor Brad Nieman worried about other groups coming forward. “How much are we opening up, and how much are we giving out?” he asked.
Councillor Kate MacNaughton worried about equity across all programs offered by the County.
While I am generally supportive of any work that establishes more equity in the programs we offer, I have concerns with rushing this one. Some of our most economically disadvantaged community members are rural renters. A motion at budget was made to include them next year.”
McNaughton is concerned that moving too quickly to address the residents at Wellington on the Lake may create inequity for other deserving pockets of residents.
Councillor Phil St-Jean wanted to know where the money would come from.
“Are we talking about spending more dollars that are unbudgeted?” asked St- Jean.
CAO Wallace acknowledged a new program would mean spending unbudgeted dollars. “Given it is unbudgeted, we will be looking to see if there are savings to be found in the year-end carryforward,” she said.
“Having heard that, I can’t say that I support unbudgeted funding of an extension of a program. However, I do support inclusion of the residents who are currently being excluded based on the error of MPAC’s ways,” added St-Jean.
A recorded vote passed with unanimous support. A report and bylaw will come back at the August 29 council meeting for ratification.
Did Daimler get the tax credit for the leasehold taxpayers? If Daimler did, why would Daimler not be responsible for returning this credit to the leaseholders/home owners?
WOTL residents are not double paying.
There is one residential tax rate that applies to all residential properties in the County. Wellington on the Lake residents pay the same rate as all other Wellington residents. They also pay the same water and sewer rates. All Wellington on the Lake residents pay monthly fees to a management company set up by the developer(s). A portion of those fees cover the costs of maintaining the roadways, park areas, snow clearing, underground piping, and garbage collection. Note that these costs are built into the municipal tax rate (although there are garbage tags that cover a portion of that cost for the rest of the County). In essence the residents of WOTL are paying twice for services: once to the County and then to the developer. In this fashion WOTL subsidizes other County residents. If Councillors are concerned about ‘equity’ perhaps they should consider rebating those double charges to all of Wellington on the Lake.
By the way, all of the roadways in the WOTL Leasehold section were just repaved. That did not come out of the County’s budget.