Manitoulin land reassessment brings down property tax for some

Good news for some Manitoulin Island homeowners after a municipal property reassessment on new growth led to some tax cuts.

Property owners have something to celebrate in Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands.

According to municipal figures, the forecasted property tax rate in some of the wards will be cut in half thanks to an additional $10 million in land assessed by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC).

In one of the wards, for example, the forecasted rate was 3.5 per cent. It will now be 1.75 per cent for the coming year thanks to new growth.

“Anytime you get new growth, they haven’t reassessed for sometime in terms of tax value, property values,” Mayor Al MacNevin said.

“But, when you get new growth, it’s easy to put in place and then they base it on what the rolling average year they’re working with.”

MacNevin said it’s welcome news given some of the budget constraints they faced earlier in 2024 along with an increase in policing costs before the province decided to step in.

According to MPAC, Ontario saw another record increase in the value of property inventory with over $42 billion in new assessment.

In northeastern Ontario, Greater Sudbury led with $181 million in new assessment.

“We were thinking we were going to end up with a three and a half per cent increase when we finalized our budget, but we didn’t have the new numbers,” MacNevin said.

“Three and a half per cent was not bad when you consider some of the cost increases we’re facing, but when the new numbers came in, this allowed us to cut the tax rate in half and it’s good news for us.”