Open Letter from CAPTR to the Ombudsman
January 3, 2008
The Ombudsman
Office of the Ombudsman of Ontario
Bell Trinity Square
483 Bay St., 10th floor, South Tower
Toronto, M5G 2C9
Dear Mr Morin
I am writing to you on behalf of the Coalition After Property Tax Reform (CAPTR), an alliance of ratepayer and seniors organizations representing over one million property owners across Ontario. You may recall we met with your staff on several occasions as representatives of WRAFT (Waterfront Ratepayers After Fair Taxation) prior to your initial report on MPAC. WRAFT was instrumental in forming CAPTR, a much broader alliance of property owners concerned with property tax reform. We have strongly supported the reforms of MPAC's assessment process you brought forward in March 2006 in your report "Getting It Right". We have reviewed MPAC's report to you of August 2007 and note that they are making progress towards implementing your recommendations. We would expect, given the time available due to the two year freeze on assessments, that the recommendations would all be implemented in time to be effective for the 2008 assessment.
However, we have a particular concern with recommendations numbers 8 and 21 which are not covered in the August 2007 report and which are in the hands of the Ontario government. We would appreciate your advice as to the status of those recommendations which are key to making the assessment process a more level playing field for property owners. Under recommendation 8, there is a clear conflict between the obligation of MPAC to give full disclosure to property owners of its methodology and the desire to keep certain formulas confidential for commercial reasons. The rights of property owners surely take precedence in this issue. Recommendation 21 states that it is up to MPAC to "substantiate its assessments when they are challenged". This statement is clear and essential to a fair assessment process.
While we continue to be concerned with assessment methodology, CAPTR's primary efforts remain focused on ways to modify the property tax system by limiting annual assessment increases. We were therefore particularly interested in your comments in Appendix 2 to your 2006 report, in particular paragraph 179 and 180, which reflected directly on the key concerns we have tried to address, i.e. the volatility of assessments and the resulting unpredictability of property tax obligations. We believe that with continuing hot real estate markets in many parts of the province, the 2008 assessment, covering three years compared to the one and a half years for the 2005 valuation, will inevitably result in even greater volatility. We want to share with you our concern that the four year cycle and phase-in introduced by the government this past spring will not be effective in dealing with this fundamental shortcoming. The longer assessment cycle can only cause greater volatility and the phase-in will simply allow property owners to pay their tax increases in installments. We understand that you believe that the legislation governing assessment and property tax is a matter to be dealt with by parliament. At the same time, a system that can cause major and unpredictable hardship for home and cottage owners needs to be reformed. You have identified the problem and any assistance you can provide in finding a solution would be appreciated by all Ontario home and cottage owners.
We would like to have an opportunity to discuss the issues in this letter further with you. We want to congratulate you again for the improvements you have initiated in the assessment process.
Yours truly
Bob Topp
Chairman
Coalition After Property Tax Reform
Cc Kwame Addo
