Toronto City Councillor
Ward 25 Don Valley West

(appeared in Bayview Post, March, 2004)

Current Value Assessment (CVA) is still causing problems for Toronto residents. In Ward 25, real estate values have continued to increase over the last number of years. And since the values have increased at different rates at different locations in the City, CVA continues to deliver de-stabilizing swings in residential property assessments. Starting this year, the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC), a provincially-created crown corporation, is conducting ANNUAL reassessments on our properties. That means the instabilities we have experienced will now occur every year.

The average assessment increase for properties in Ward 25 this year is 13.3%, which is slightly less than the citywide increase of 14.4%. This means that the average property owner in Ward 25 will see a $57 tax decrease on the city's portion of your tax bill - due to CVA-related effects only. If the city's tax rate increases by 3%, for example, we would experience average tax increases of approximately $200.

I introduced a motion at Toronto City Council to ask Gregory Sorbara, Ontario Minister of Finance, to respond to citizen concerns about the market volatility and obscurity of the existing CVA system - as well as seeking reviews of individual properties that have had successful appeals, so they don' t experience an above average assessment increase in subsequent years. City Council passed this motion and the City is requesting a response from the Minister by August 1, 2004. I will be delighted to inform you of his response. In addition, I moved a phase-in of CVA-related tax increases for the residential class over a two-year period to mitigate the wild swings for some property owners. Unfortunately, this second part of my motion failed on an 11-33 vote.

City Council, however, did pass several resolutions requesting the Province to change the existing law restricting property tax increases to certain classes of property - with the intent, instead, to spread them across all classes, including commercial and industrial classes. If the Province accepts this, it will provide some relief on residential taxes.

If you don't agree with the assessment on your property, you have until December 31, 2004 to request a re-consideration by MPAC. You can download the form from www.mpac.ca. If you wish to appeal your assessment at the Assessment Review Board (ARB), you must do so before March 31, 2004 - the charge for this is $50 per residential roll number. To find out more about assessment appeals, please visit the ARB web-site www.arb.gov.on.ca or call their toll-free number 1-800-263-3237 or 416-314-6900.

Online access to assessment data for homeowners is also available on the MPAC website. You may also contact my office for assistance at 416-395-6408.