BRETT THOMS PONTIAC

Municipalities across the MRC Pontiac have either passed or are preparing to pass their municipal budgets. With inflationary pressures on municipal and MRC services and the dramatic increase in assessment values in some municipalities due to a boom in real estate sales, many elected officials expressed that this year’s budget process required some difficult decisions. Here’s some takeaways from some of the municipalities that have passed a budget and spoken with THE EQUITY.

Chichester

Chichester will see some of the highest tax increases of the municipalities THE EQUITY has spoken with. The municipality’s mill rate (the amount of tax payable per $100 of the assessed value of a property) is going from 70 cents per $100 to 73.5 cents. This increase occurred because the shares Chichester pays to the MRC have gone up around $40,000 from last year, according to Director General (DG) of Chichester, Alicia Jones.

The increase in shares owed to the MRC has caused the council of Chichester to pass a resolution, which among other things, disputes the used standardized assessment values used by the MRC when determining share rates and accuses the MRC budget as lacking transparency.

Jones explained the difference between the assessment value Chichester has on the books with standardized assessment value as the following:

“Our assessment value that we have on the books is what we’re allowed to charge our taxes on. But the MRC calculates our shares on standardized assessment value. Every year, there’s a factor that’s released by the Minister of Municipal Affairs to say how much your market value may have increased in the year. So Chichester’s market value factor was 1.53, which is 53 per cent higher [than Chichester’s assessment value on the books.] MRC uses the standardized value. So they take the total assessment volume times it by 1.5 and use that for their calculation. We’re being charged more than what we can collect.”

Chichester has, for the first time, broken down for its residents what tax money will go for municipal operations and what will go to the MRC, with 53 cents going towards the town’s general operations and 20.5 cents going towards the MRC.

The resolution passed by the municipality requests that the MRC provide:

• A clear and transparent breakdown of the 2023 budgeted revenues and expenses of the MRC Pontiac, with prior years comparables;
• A clear justification for the increase to the shares to the local municipalities;
• A revision of the way the shares are calculated with consideration for items other than merely the standardized assessment values; which could include, but are not limited to, population, number of dwellings and/or businesses, etc.;
• An adoption of a new MRC Pontiac Bylaw regarding calculation of shares, prior to the adoption of the next Budget;
• A formal process of consultation with the local municipalities prior to, and in preparation for, the adoption of the annual budget of the MRC Pontiac.”

It was also requested that this resolution be read at the public MRC Council of Mayors meeting on Dec. 21.

Chichester has also added a new tax of $110 per ratepayer for police service in the area.

Finally, the municipality used $83,000 of its surplus to balance the budget, leaving $120,000, according to Jones.

In terms of capital projects for Chichester, Jones mentioned repaying the municipalities 10 per cent share in the recent pavement of Nicabau Road, as well as continuing with the Chichester village waterfront project, which is funded entirely by grants.