The Rural Voice, 2005-10, Page 57GREY
County Federation of Agriculture NEWSLETTER
446 10th St., Hanover, Ontario N4N 1P9
Email: grey@ofa.on.ca Website: www.ofa.on.ca/grey 519-364-3050 or 1-800-275-9551
• The Rural Voice is provided to OFA
Members in Grey County by the GCFA
Have your taxes gone up? If they
have. it has probably happened
because of rising assessment values.
As market values rise, the
assessments for property owners who
have made no improvements.
additions or changes still face much
higher assessments and probably
taxes.
My main purpose in writing this
article is to alert everyone about a
problem with our Farmland Property
Class Tax Program that allows
farmers to pay 25 per cent of assessed
taxes on farmland. When this simpler
system began three years ago, the
Ontario Government promised to pay
our Municipalities the remainder (75
per cent). And for two years they did.
But this year things changed. The
Community Reinvestment Fund (the
program that funded the payments)
has been replaced by the Ontario
Municipal Partnership Fund. This
new program has already eliminated
some of the payments to some
municipalities. For example:
Meaford, Grey Highlands and the
Town of the Blue Mountains have no
provincial funds to fund this program
for 2005.
The Grey County Federation of
Agriculture formulated a resolution
and sent it to the OFA August Board
of Directors' Meeting. There we
discovered that we were not alone.
Many counties are facing the same
Have your taxes gone up?
problem so our resolution was
passed. It demanded that the Ontario
Government continue to provide full
funding to municipalities to support
the newly named Farmland Property
Class Tax Program.
To try and understand our tax
system a little better, I attended a
recent meeting of the Blue Mountain
Ratepayers Association. This was
billed as a Tax Awareness Meeting
and featured Paul Hazell as the guest
speaker.
Paul is the chairman of the board
of directors of CAFTA (Canadian
Advocates for Tax Awareness). He
was a former employee of the
Municipal Property Assessment
Corporation (MPAC) and the Ontario
Assessment office.
His organization recommends a
taxation system with the following
Principles: Fairness. Predictability.
Stability, Transparency, Simplicity.
Easy Administration. Acceptance.
Self Control, Base Year. Non -
Punitive. Non -Volatility. and
Accountability. They are
GREY COUNTY FEDERATION OF AGRICULTURE
PLEASE NOTE:
There will be NO Board of
Directors' Meeting in October
because of the Annual Meeting
Next meeting will be
Thursday, November 17, 2005
GREY COUNTY FEDERATION OF AGRICULTURE
65th ANNUAL MEETING AND BANQUET
and OFA REGIONAL MEETING
Friday, October 14, 2005
Markdale Community Centre
Social: 6:30 pm. - Dinner: 7:00 pm.
Guest Speaker
Also New Environmental Farm Plan Information, Ray Robertson, Co-ordinator
Tickets: $15/person (available from Township Presidents or the Federation office)
NOTE: OFA Regional Directors, Delegates and Alternates for OFA
Convention, and GCFA Presidents will be elected at the meeting
52 THE RURAL VOICE
recommending the replacement of
MPAC with a new agency controlled
by the Ontario Government, a five-
year freeze on assessments, purchase
value assessments on new purchases
and a controlled rate of increase after
the freeze.
They also want the downloading
of programs (such as our Farmland
Property Class Tax Program,
ambulance services, social services,
and the list goes on) to stop. For more
information. CAFTA's website is
www.caftacanada.ca
What can we do now? Pay
attention to our assessment notices. If
yours seems too high then appeal it.
— Submitted by Allen Hughes.
1st Vice President, GCFA
Environmental
Farm Plan
Workshops
Grey County Agricultural Services
Centre:
10.00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Tuesday, October 4
Tuesday, October 11
Thursday, October 13
Friday, October 21
Wednesday, November 9
Wednesday, November 16
Friday, November 18
Friday, November 25
Ravenna Hall
10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Lunch included
Pre -registration required
Monday, October 17
Monday, October 24
Contact: Ray Robertson,
EFP Co-ordinator
Phone: 519-986-3756
Fax: 519-986-2643
Email: ray@greyagservices.ca