TERRACE g/3 t INO PROPERTY ASSESSMENT A PROVINCIAL FUNCTION All property in Ontario will be assessed at market value by 1975 as the cornerstone of "a complete overhaul of the municipal system", Municipal Af- fairs Minister Darcy McKeough said recently . Plans to change assessment from a municipal func- tion to full Provincial control were announced on March 4 in the Budget White Paper of Provincial Treasurer Charles MacNaughton. Mr. McKeough said the change in assessment was urgently neaded to provide greater fairness to all taxpayers, and at the same time to establish a sound base for other reforms in the municipal system. He outlined the background and details in the course of an address to the Oakville Chamber of Commerce. This will be the first basic reform of assessment in Ontario in 120 years, he pointed out. The draw - backs of the old system included "startling inequal- ities 'that resulted in some taxpayers carrying more than their share of the local tax load. Under the new system, "we will establish uniform standards to replace the present patch-work of dif- ferences and inconsistencies," Mr. McKeough said. The Municipal Affairs Department has been involved in assessment since 1947, but its role until now has been largely advisory. The aims of the assessment reform include equity among taxpayers and among municipalities, and im- proved basis for Provincial grants, and greater effi- ciency in staff training and staff utilization. A further gim is to assess all ie ee eee properties at market value. This is2ff utilization. in sharp contrast to the existing | wractice. Last year, Mr.Mc- SAFETY 'eough said .... Continued page 7.. BAY NEWS| Mg 969 NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC The private roads, built and maintained by Kim- berly-Clark Pulp and Paper Company Limited on its Longlac pulpwood concession will be closed to all traffic by the public for a period of twenty-four(24). hours commencing at 7.00.a.m., Monday, March 31, 1989 and will remain closed until 7.00 a.m. Tuesday, April 1, 1969. Kimberly-Clark Pulp and Paper Company Limited COULD BE STRAW THAT BREAKS BACK Persons who were born and raised in Northwestern Ontario, and indeed many who have moved into the area and lived here for 20 years or so, harbor a feeling that "this land is ours". That feeling en- genders the conviction that one recompense for the long winter and spring which we survive, and the isolation from many of the amenities which the effete and populous folk in southern Ontario have, is the enjoyment of the great outdoors, our heritage. That explains the anger in the breasts of people hereabouts when the bureaucrats of the provincial government, stationed in Toronto, issue edicts which deprive us of pleasures which we have come to believe are our inalienable right. , For decades citizens of Northwestern Ontario have "celebrated" the coming of spring by going to the mouths of streams to net smelts. Groups of friends, families, have taken a keen delight in i hat i ilabl is ME. Then what happens sudden- ly? The moneyhungry govern-. - ment cont'd page 13