HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 1978-05-17, Page 23Huron F of A votes down
OFA tax reform
BY KEITH ROULSTON
Despite emotional' appeals that
the Huron County Federation of
Agriculture support the Ontario
Federation's stand on land tax
reform, members voted strongly
against the O.F.A. proposal for
farm tax reform Thursday night.
About 40 attended the meeting
in Belgrave, many saying they
had come to the monthly meeting
of the Federation only because
they had heard a vote would be
taken on the proposal. They
wanted no part of the O.F.A.'s
proposal that food producing land
be tax exempt and farmers only
pay taxes on their farm homes
and a minimal acreage around the
house. Speaker after speaker
doubted the government's motiv-
es in the proposal to ease the
burden on land tax by paying the
taxes for farmers on all but their
homes.
In supporting $he motion ag-
ainst the policy of O.F.A. and the
proposal of the provincial govern-
ment, Jim McIntosh, director for
East Central Huron said that a
large majority of farmers in
Huron are not willing to have the
government pay tax on all but the
farm house. There is nothing
wrong with the market value
assessment which the province
will be adopting, he ;said, if all
properties are justly assessed. A"s
a former clerk -treasurer for
Tuckersmith Township, he .said,
he didn't like the farm tax
proposal. He said the OFA should
stick to its original proposal of
people taxes paying for services
to people and property taxes
paying for services to property.
Debate stopped at this point
when Merle Gunby, vice presid-
ent of the Huron Federation and
director from north west Huron to
O.F.A. moved a tabling motion
which was defeated. Mr.. Gunby
claimed that the time for opposi-
tion to the O.F.A. policy was
earlier and that now that the
policy had been accepted by
O.F.A. the county should stand
behind the provincial decision..
After the tabling motion's
defeat, Jim Armstrong of Wing -
ham said he felt that the govern-
ment's proposal was part of the
government's cheap food policy.
He noted a meeting of consumer
groups and labour unions some
time ago in which both groups
called for public ownership of
food producing land as a way of
keeping food prices .down. He
wondered what would happen if
he didn't pay the taxes on his
house for three years therefore
Labor
Savers
making it liable for tax sale. Who
would then get the land on the
farm, he wondered. Land taxes
make up only about one percent
of input costs, he said, and
weren't that serious a problem for
farmers.
DEFENDED
Maurice Bean, director for
central west Huron defended the
O..F.A. policy. He said that
farmers seemed to be happy with
the 50 per cent rebate on taxes
that the O.F.A. won to offset
education taxes so what was the
fuss over 100 percent. If farmers
feel so strongly about paying their
share' of taxes, he said, then why
did farmers want exemptions
from sales tax items they buy?
George Underwood of Wing -
ham said that he was concerned
that many of the O.F.A. directors
from across the province who
approved the policy don't really
know what's going on. He said
that at an information meeting
held earlier in Clinton the O.F.A.
executive didn't seem to get the
message that farmers didn't like
the policy. Maybe now they'd
listen, he said.
Ernie Ackert, a visiting mem-
ber of the Bruce Federation,
related the story of a number of
lakes on f rms in Bruce county'
where, duping the depression the
owners had asked that they be
relieved of paying taxes . on the
water portion of the lake since it
was non-productive farmland.
Later these owners discovered
that they had lost ownership of
the lake portions of their farm on
their deeds and the lakes were
now owned by governme"nt.
Paul Ross, a Clinton lawyer,
said that before coming to Clinton
he had worked for a time at the
Ministry of Revenue and felt that
they themselves didn't seem to
know where they were going with
land tax reform. "Why take
chances with your own land?" he
wondered.
Gordon Hill., past president of
the OFA came to the defence of
the O.F.A. policy saying he
believed ,the government was
sincere in its proposal. As far
back as 1948, he said, the
Federation had been asking for
.tax relief. Under a great deal of
stress, the government did come
up with the education tax rebate
in 1970, he said. He said the
government's task in reform was
complicated by the pledge of
former agriculture minister Bill
Stewart that any new taxation
system would not be harder on
the farmer than the old system.
With the education tax rebate and
the fact that the whole tax
assessment could be claimed as
an expense it meant that farmers
were only paying about 10
percent of their assessed taxes,
he said.
PEOPLE TAXES
As for the O.F.A. policy of
people, taxes for people services
and land taxes for land services,
he said, the problem was just
what were the services to land.
The land itself didn't need. any
services if there weren't any
people around.
Without tax reform, he said,
how coati Ontario farmers com-
pete with') farmers in Alberta or
New Brunswick who don't have to
pay property tax?
He said the new policy for farm
tax reform was a ,good one
because he thought the govern-
ment was going to raise a lot more
`money from land taxes in the
future than they had in the past.
The O.F.A. had two options, he
said. It could continue to say it.
would go along with the old
policy, , or , it could say "we've
tried, but now it's time to make a
deal."
SURVEY
Jim Hallahan, R. R. 3 Blyth,
termed Mr. Hill's arguments "a
lot of bull". He said he had
recently taken part.in a survey of
farmers in East Wawanosh Town-
ship and many were irafe about
?the O.F.A. policy. He said that if
O.F.A..went through with the
'policy. it would lose half its
membership in Huron County.
Frank Wall ,, of the O.F.A.
executive was at the meeting and
said that the report of the
committee studying land tax
reform recognizes the rights of
the farmer to his land even if he
doesn't pay taxes on the land.
Others supporting the O.F.A.
policy said 'that the ownership of
the land depends not on who pays
the taxes but on who owns the
deed. But Mr. Ross argued that
just because you have the deed to
property doesn't mean you ow_ n
it.
Another speaker warned that if
the government is looking ahead
with this policy, it's looking ahead
to a cheap food policy. The policy
will be a great incentive to
farmers to buy up more farms.,
wipe out the farm houses to keep
down the taxes and just work the
land. It will make the countryside
look barren, he argued.
Mr. Gunby then returned with
an emotional s eech in support of
the O.F.A. pohi'" refuting many
of the earlier arguments against "
CONTINUED ON PAGE 24
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