July 21, 2015 – City Council agreed on Monday to implement, without further appeal, a decision of the Assessment Review Board (ARB) regarding a 54% reduction in the valuation of the Resolute mill from $72.2 million to $32.6 million for the 2009-2012 taxation years.

“Resolute is an excellent corporate citizen and a valued part of the Thunder Bay economy,” said City Manager Tim Commisso. “Our disappointment is with the assessment system itself and the fact that it has unpredictable and unstable impacts, particularly related to non-residential properties.

“Property assessments are set by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation, or MPAC, and the City calculates taxes on industrial, commercial and residential properties using those assessments. We are very disappointed that all of the arguments put forward by MPAC to defend its assessment were dismissed by the Assessment Review Board in this appeal. The City counts on MPAC for stable and predictable assessments so that we can deliver services and infrastructure to benefit all taxpayers.”

The ARB’s decision of July 3 was based on recent assessment appeal decisions on other paper mills and applying the same model concept to the Resolute mill. The reduction will funded by existing reserves established for this.

The City will bring recommendations for improvements to the Provincial property assessment process to meetings with Provincial Ministers at the annual meeting of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) on Aug. 16-17.

As well, Mayor Keith Hobbs was recently appointed to the Board of MPAC. It is hoped that through this development, an increasingly positive working relationship with MPAC and efforts MPAC is making, that MPAC will increase its capacity to improve the assessment system, Commisso said.

 

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Contact: Tim Commisso, City Manager, 625-2224