Feature Article February 19, 2004
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Industrialists abound in syrup country
Paul
and Marylou Pospisil of Bolingbroke dont fit the profile normally
associated with industrialists, but that didnt stop their
barn/sugar shack from being classed an industrial building and being
taxed at 17 times the agricultural rate.
The Pospisils are best known as garlic growers, but they do tap about 200-250 trees, and last year made about 25 gallons of maple syrup using traditional syrup pails and their Waterloo economy evaporator, with its 24 by 48 boiling pan. The evaporator is installed in a room that is 14 by 15 in the centre portion of their utility building.
In November they received notification by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) that the building is now classed as Industrial, and is being assessed at $8,500 in value. The tax payable under the Tay Valley Industrial Tax rate will be around $500 in 2004 for the building alone, which works out to about $20 for each gallon of syrup they produced last year.
We originally started doing syrup as an educational business, said Paul Pospisil, using the 1880s system to demonstrate, which the Maple Syrup Producers Association appreciated. As far as I know, we are the only Maple Syrup producer in Tay Valley to be assessed so far.
The key issue, according to Keith Watt of the Renfrew office of MPAC is that Maple Syrup is sold as a commercial product. If you are making syrup for yourself and your own family, we are not going to bother with you. If you are making syrup to sell we are assessing it as industrial. Watt said that Ontario regulation 282-98 describes lands which fall into the industrial category as lands used for manufacturing, producing, or processing anything.
When asked if MPAC had decided to interpret this regulation in terms of assessing sugar shacks, Watt said It did not require much interpretation; it pretty clearly applies.
There had been reports that the size of the syruping operation, a presence of a syrup-related website and a road sign were factors in whether syruping buildings were going to be assessed, but Keith Watt said MPAC is looking at things like that to gather information as they seek to assess all buildings that boil syrup for commercial sale in Ontario.
Mark Wheeler, of Wheelers Maple Products in McDonalds Corners, has been active on this issue on behalf of the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association. He says that for MPAC to say that Maple Syrup, the oldest farm product in Canada, is an industrial product, doesnt add up.
The Wheelers have a pancake house as part to their operation, which is taxed as commercial. Their Maple bush is taxed as farm, while their sap boiling building is now being taxed as an industrial building.
He asks what kind of farm product he could produce if he quit boiling his sap.
Maple sap is inherently unstable, and is not a product in itself; it is only sap, Wheeler said.
Kieth Watt disagrees. We are saying maple sap is a product. It is a saleable product. People do sell sap, Watt said.
It takes 40 to 50 gallons of maple sap to produce one gallon of syrup after boiling down.
The Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association (OMSPA) has made several attempts to sway government thinking on this matter over the past two months, and did secure a meeting on Wednesday, February 18in Toronto between Mark Wheeler and Don Dodds of the OMSPA, and Ministry of Finance officials.
The Maple Syrup producers have pointed out that Ontario Statute law clearly defines the production of Maple Syrup as an Agricultural Operation according to the Ontario Farming and Food Production Act. sec.1.(2)(c)., and under the assessment act farm lands and buildings used only for farm purposes are assessed at farm rates.
The Ontario Federation of Agriculture also raised the issue with Finance Minister Greg Sorbara in January. As of yet, there has been no indication the Ministry of Finance intends to reclassify Maple Syrup as a farm, rather than an industrial product.
