There will be no changes for how taxes will be paid for island residents after a discussion from West Nipissing council.
“There’s no specific classification for islands in terms of categorizing them in a certain matter such as residential or commercial land,” West Nipissing’s Chief Administrative Officer Jay Barbeau said. “That is out of the question. What becomes possible is the idea of area raiding services. The issue with that is it is not so much about reducing cost to some, but adding additional fees for what they call special services.”
“Any area that receives special services, you’re allowed to provide an additional service that others are not receiving,” he continued. “That’s kind of the reverse of what the folks who own island cottages and recreational properties are asking for.”
The matter was first brought up to council two months ago. In a letter to council, the residents asked elected officials to consider creating a tax category for water access residents similar to what’s in place in Muskoka and Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands.
“In order to satisfy the needs with the island properties, what we would need to do is undertake a detailed analysis and start from scratch from a baseline of what common services does everybody in West Nipissing receive,” Barbeau said. “Then you start looking at adding layers of additional services to some and not to others. It becomes a very complicated task because it isn’t just islands receiving, according to their perception, certain services. There are similar type of properties that receive similar services all over and that’s where it becomes much more complex and problematic.”
“What I indicated is that the end result is there are probably very few services that you end up discounting because most services offered within a municipality are offered to everybody to a certain degree,” he added. “That gets into another philosophical discussion as to should islanders only benefit or should people who live on a gravel road in some of the former unincorporated territories who have farther access, should they be treated differently as well?”
Barbeau says if council was to look further into the issue, it would present a very complex task for them to deal with.
“Conceptually it is possible to look at it through the municipal act,” Barbeau explained. “It isn’t done very commonly in Ontario for that reason. The province has indicated a system of taxation that accounts for the idea that if you live very far away from services, you’re probably going to be assessed a little bit less anyways.”
“Even if you live on a lake on the north side of our community, you’re probably assessed at two thirds for the same type of property than you would be on the south side of our community,” Barbeau continued. “It’s called market value assessment, but it is also in relation to services as well. People who have homes on the lake at the end of Dutrisac road pay much more in taxes and are valued much greater than people who live on Cache, Deer or Tomiko lakes. That was the discussion and council determined at this time it wasn’t something they are going to delve into.”
With that said, Barbeau isn’t closing the door on this being a possibility down the road.
“I think when you have a municipality such as West Nipissing, there is less commonality in the types of areas,” he explained. “You’ve got urban areas incorporated with very large rural and recreational areas so there are a lot of differences in the look of the municipality. When you look at a city like North Bay, you have a high percentage that is very common in its appearance.”
“These discussions come to the floor more often in our types of municipalities than in cities,” Barbeau added. “It also has to do with the resources we have available. If council asked us to have a look at that analysis, we would do that but we would do it by satisfying the legislation the way the legislation is written.”
While West Nipissing will not be pursuing the issue, Barbeau believes it is an important one to talk about.
“We thank the residents for raising the issue, it is a very good topic,” he said. West Nipissing “staff have no problem one way or the other. We have a budget that needs to be met and how that is distributed amongst the population really is a public issue. We were just indicating what the legislation allows us to do and not do.”