Feature Article February 5, 2005
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MPAC strikes again
MPAC may not be some kind of bureaucratic monster that sees all rural Ontarians as riche and greedy landowners that need to be rooted out and fleeced of their ill-gotten wealth, but it certainly acts like one.
Recently, ecologically minded foresters have been attacked, and then the ultra wealthy Maple Syrup manufacturers were attacked, when sugar shacks above a certain size were classed as industrial operations.
One of the most outrageous attack to date is the retroactive taxation of seasonal trailers in privately run campgrounds. At least six campground owners in Central and North Frontenac received an extra tax bill last year at the beginning of December based on the assessed value of trailers that had been parked on their land in the summer. Exactly which trailers are taxable is not exactly clear, but it seems trailers that have attached add-a-rooms or fixed porches seem to be the target.
MPAC claims these are permanent structures, although campground owners I have talked to insist they are bolted together and can be disassembled and moved within a day.
There can be a debate about taxing seasonal trailers. In general, the people come back year after year, and often store their trailers on site through the winter months. During the summer the people make use of township facilities, such as dumps and roads. There is some justification for saying these people should contribute in some way to the finances of the townships where they park their trailers in the summer. On the other hand, the land on which their trailers are parked is taxed already.
Lets assume it is fair to assess the seasonal trailers. The way to do it would be to decide what the rules will be, and make them clear to all campground owners to pass the information along to the trailer owners. Then the campground owners need to be given one year to tell their tenants that the tax is coming into effect and will be reflected in what they pay for rent in the following year. This is the only way for the campground owners to be able to act as tax collectors for the local townships without either paying themselves, which they were forced to do with the retroactive assessment. One campground owner explained it this way: Imagine you buy a chocolate bar for a dollar. After you eat it and are walking away from the store, the store owner runs out and tells you hes raised the price on that chocolate bar and wants you now to pay the higher price even though the bar was paid for and eaten.
This is what campground owners are being told to do.
What would be more fair is to allow the campground owners to inform their tenants this summer that their trailers are going to be taxed, and their camping spot will be raised by that amount, as of next summer. That way they will have plenty of time to decide whether they want to pay the increase or move their trailers somewhere else.
When the new assessment notices for the campgrounds were sent to the townships in November, they were forced to levy the taxes on the campgrounds. North Frontenac Council has decided to waive all interest on those taxes until August, to give the campground owners a chance to see if they can change the policy, or to see if they can raise the necessary funds when their tenants return in the spring. Central Frontenac has not done this, and the campground owners were forced to pay up by the end of December or begin paying 1.5% per month on any unpaid trailer taxes.
As for MPAC, it needs a complete review. We elected a new provincial government; its time for them to take control over an agency whose operations it is charged with controlling.
