WHY NORTHERN
MUNICIPALITIES STRUGGLE
WITH CANADIAN TIRE
REASSESSMENT BILLS
Loss of commercial property tax revenues threatens to
seriously affect residential property owners
By Johnnie Bachusky
T
hunder Bay city councillor
Andrew Foulds is passionate-
ly leading the charge for his
city and northwest Ontario
municipalities this year against the
rising tide of taxation facing residen-
tial property owners as a result of a
property assessment agreement with
Canadian Tire.
Foulds, who has been on council
since 2006, is specifically targeting
the Ontario government and the-
Municipal Property Assessment
Corporation (MPAC) for its role
in the landmark agreement with
Canadian Tire last December. The
agreement is dramatically reducing
commercial tax revenues for north-
western Ontario communities and
also threatening to have what Foulds
calls a “devastating” impact on the
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Q2 2017 www.amcto.com
ability to fund essential
municipal services.
The agreement calls
for Thunder Bay to repay
Canadian Tire $1 mil-
lion in taxes that were
paid from 2008, a result
of a 27 and 23 per cent
reduction in value of the
city’s two Canadian Tire
properties.
Carla Nell
“I see the impacts of
that in the future being
devastating for municipalities,” says
Foulds. “What is happening is the
burden of taxes is being shifted onto
residential ratepayers and they are
not seeing increases in services. It’s
at the top of the minds of many of
our citizens and I think this for the
next number of years is potentially
going to be the most
serious municipal issue
that faces municipalities
across the province, and
I think this issue is going
to find its way across the
country.”
Before the settlement
with MPAC, Canadian
Tire had challenged the
2008 and 2012 assess-
ments of about 300
Ontario
properties,
based on arguments the company’s
markets were declining and its out-
lets faced diminished resale values.
Instead of appeals being heard
individually, the unprecedented
agreement between the big-box
retailer and MPAC bundled all outlets
across the province to be assessed