CHRIS LOWREY
MUNICIPALITY OF PONTIAC Feb. 27, 2019
With some businesses in the Municipality of Pontiac facing a tax increase by at least 40 per cent, entrepreneurs are making their frustrations known to Mayor Joanne Labadie.
The tax rate for commercial properties has gone from 67 cents per $100 of evaluation on a property to $1.10 per $100.
While she acknowledged that businesses will face a steep increase this year, the municipal council decided it was easier for businesses to shoulder the increase than residents.
“The feeling of council was that the 4,000 residences of the municipality had been subsidizing the businesses and they felt that it was time that businesses – like in other municipalities – paid for their share of the taxes as well,” she said.
She pointed to the fact that, in other municipalities, businesses must make their own waste disposal arrangements whereas in the Municipality of Pontiac, businesses are able to use the municipal waste removal.
She also said that many businesses have the ability to write off some of the increased costs.
Labadie said this was fair because in many cases, the businesses pay the same rate as residents do but they use more of the services.
“The thinking at council was that the businesses hadn’t been paying the taxes and we certainly went lower than we could have,” Labadie said. “We’re still below what many of the other municipalities are charging their businesses.”
Labadie said that with the floods of 2017 and the recent tornado that tore though the municipality, several property evaluations decreased. Coupled with the residents moving out of the municipality after their properties were condemned after the flooding and Labadie said there was a severe shortage in tax revenue.
“We had no growth in 2018,” Labadie said.
Labadie pointed out several factors that led to the need for a tax increase: MRC des Collines municipal shares increased by 5.89 per cent, a new collective bargaining agreement – along with retroactive pay – and an increase in the snow removal budgets are among the reasons.
She pointed to the 4.3 per cent property tax increase for residents and said that when the savings in service taxes for things like waste removal are factored in, it drops the average property tax increase to around 2.2 per cent.
But that still doesn’t help some businesses.
For instance, Siri Ingebrigtsen runs Avant Garde Horse Farm in Luskville and said she’ll be facing a tax increase of around $1,500.
“Why do we have to pick up the slack for everybody else?” Ingebrigtsen asked last week.
Although Ingebrigtsen runs an equestrian farm, her land isn’t classified as agricultural. In order for that to be the case, she would have to raise her horses for slaughter or breeding or she’d have to sell $5,000 worth of agricultural products per year.
While Ingebrigtsen said she could be classified as agricultural by selling $5,000 of hay and then buying it back, she feels like she’s being punished for playing by the rules.
Labadie said that while some business owners have told her the tax increase could push them to the brink, Labadie said that council will take that into consideration going forward.
“I did speak to a number of business owners and for some of them, [with] a tax increase they may choose to close their business and I regret that,” she said.
Labadie added that while business owners will have to pay more in taxes, it was the lesser evil compared to a higher increase for homeowners.
“It’s a difficult decision because I think it would have been a far greater burden on a lot of citizens as well to add a few hundred dollars to their tax bill and they have no ability to be able to write that off,” she said.
