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Barrie council hits out at speculators In brief to commission on tax reforms Barrie Council doesnt want the provmce to pay property taxes for land speculators own ing farm land in Ontario says Mayor Dorian Parker Mayor Parker presented counctls brief on the 15 pro posed property tax reforms to JOHN lclllOLiH tlelt Midland trustee on the Sim coe County Board of Educa tion presents brief to the Ontario tax reform commis sion Thursday in rillia as Jack Ramsay director of the the provincial commission reveiwing the reforms The commission members held public meeting in Twin Lakes Secondary School in Orillia Thursday to listen to briefs and presentations The mayor read councils SCBE board changes are made in educa tion financing policy the cost of paying tax on school pro perty may have to be passed The school that unless listens warned brief saying it was not unanimously supported but is the decision of the majority of council Mayor Parker said the pro posal for the province to pay property taxes for farmland and farm buildings excluding on to the average taxpayer The reform commission is holding 26 hearings across the province the next one scheduled for Tuesday in Kingston Examiner Photo Boards 11page submission asks education tax reform R1LLIA Education finan cing should be reformed along with the Ontario property tax the tax reform commission was told here Thursday In an 11page brief the Simcoe County Baord of Education said proposed taxation of school pro perty could cost $10 million nually in Simcoe County Lnless provincial grants compensate for the added cost it will have to be passed on in the form of higher property tax the school board said in brief read by Midland trustee John McCullough We are stressing the need for discussion between the ministry of the treasury and the ministry of education before implementation tot the tax reformst Mr McCullough said We need reforms in the financing of elementary and secondary school education He said the provincial go vernement provides grants to help pay operating expenses the category property tax would fall under But school boards generally exceed the ministry of educa tions ceiling on spending for secondary schools and they would therefore not be able to claim additional grants to pay the property tax Our board reiterates its con cern that the individual tax payer be protected against severe increases over short term the brief stated We repeat that it is not enough to ensure that the effect on an additional jurisdiction or municipality will be con trolled Jack Ramsay director of the Simcoc County Board of Educa tion said the board is con cerned about any shift in educa tion financing from the provin cial level to the local property taxpayer He said chaotic conditions resulted from such shift earlier this year Although the ministry of education announced an eight per cent increase in grant assistance across the province this year the Simcoe County board ended up with two per cent less Mr McCullough Silld As result Simcoe County taxpayers this year faced 25 per cent increase in mill rates for education alone Another comment by the Sim coe County board brought startled reaction from some of the members of the reform commission To reduce inequities when the province pays all farm proper ty taxes the school board sug gested The number of members elected to board of education should be based only on assess ment of property for which the province does not pay the taxes The province should face penalties it it is late paying taxes and Those having their taxes paid by the province should not be allowed to include this amount when preparing their tax credit forms Wrong time for proposals Barrie chamber brief says The province might have the wrong time to make reforms to property tax laws says the Greater Barrie Chamber of Commerce Bob lrlollywood general manager represented the chamber at public meeting in Orillia Thursday for the provin cial commission studying the 13 reforms Mr Hollywood said the brief was prepared by the legislative affairs committee of the chamber under Ietcr llowden chairman He asked reading the brief if the tax reforms are absolutely necessary when the national and provincial levels of produc tivity are barely beginning to recover We are of the opinion that the timing of these proposals which have serious implica tions for all residents is ques tionable he said Mr Ilollywood said the busi ness and investment climate of Ontario is at best uncertain It is extremely difficult it not impossible to forecast the total impact of these proposals without more precise knowl edge the brief said Mr Hollywood said the Bar rie chamber is concerned about increasing taxes on the older properties in the city with re assessment Many persons on fixed in comes tend to be the owners of older homes he said reading the brief It would be required that some form of assistance be available to help them in the early years of the proposed changes SERIOUS PROBLEMS Mr Hollywood said few peo ple in Ontario can expect taxes to decrease because of the pro posed reforms because school board properties will be taxed The proposed tax reforms he said will cause serious pro blems for small businesses and also for the large industries will need more land to operate The chamber brief said the governrhent should not ignore these two sectors of the na tional economy and suggested more detailed studies to en sure that the impact of any changeis equitable We are unable to ascertain why the recommendation was made that business tax value he set at 50 per cent of the assessed value he said Why could it not have been fixed at 30 per cent The commission also re ceived brief from the rillia and District Chamber of Com merce Doug Lewis chamber member read the brief saying the proposed reforms will shift the brunt of the tax BOB HOLLYWOOD general manager of the Greater Bar rie Chamber of Commerce spoke to the rovincial com mission stu ying the pro posed property tax reforms during public meeting in burden to the small busi nesses Main Street Ontario will suf fer crippling increases while big business is granted decrease he said Tourist resorts and other seasonal businesses are especially hard hit by the proposed tax reform Mr Lewis said his chamber would like the province to place ceiling of eight per cent on budgets for municipalities and defer proposals for farms and managed forests and business assessment until the impact of the market value assessment can be properly determined rillia Thursday Mr Hollywood told the commis sion the Chambers brief was prepared by the legislative affairs committee of the chamber Illellllntfl Photo farm residences may cause problems At first glance it sounds good she said reading the brief But the mayor said farm land in the Barrie area is being bought by speculators for possi ble development It is questionable why the public represented by the pro vince should pay the taxes on these farmlands to benefit these speculators she said Councils brief suggested the province pay taxes for farmers who are actually resident on the farm What is farm should be clearly defined to avoid future tax evasions she said HIT AT SPECULATORS Council also hit at spe culators in another part of the brief concerning the proposal to define residential property to include only residences and reasonable amount of land In the reforms the residen tial property will be taxed at 50 cent of the market value ut vacant industrial and com mercial land will be taxed at 100 per cent There is no reason that land rendered sterile by speculation for future development should be considered in the preferen tial classification of residen tial the mayor read She said vacant land is inef ficient in growing urban system because urban ser vices have to bypass an area to reach land which the owners want developed Hopefully this more equitable assessment proposal may give an incentive to owners of vacant lands to develop in an early and orderly fashion the mayor read from the brief Mayor Parker was in the hot seat for short time while one member of the commission Robert Simon questioned about the exemption for chur ches Mr Simon said if the pro vince was removing tax exemp tions for other charitable iii stitutions why not remove the exemptions for churches and cemeteries also Council supported the move to leave churches in the exemp tion category saying care should be exercised in defining what is church to ensure that the property is used for religious purposes Mayor Parker said the citys brief favored removing exemp tions for other organizations correcting an unfair ad vantage that tenants of the Bar rie Agriculture Society have had in not paying realty taxes TRIED FOR TWO YEARS Barrie council has tried for about two years to have some type of law passed by the pro vince so municipalities could charge property tax to tenants using non taxable society land There are two commercial type of developments on the agriculture society property the Barrie Raceway and Barrie CurlingClub Mayor Parker said the city does collect about $12000 in commercial business tax from the restaurant at the raceway This proposed change sup ports representations that we and other municipalities have made to to the provincial government in the past several years she read The mayor said in general Barrie council supports the tax proposals to make the proper ty taxation system fair and equitable The commission is holding 26 public meetings in the province with the rillia meeting number 10 It was the only meeting in the Barrie area Farmers would rather pay Federation president says Farmers would rather pay taxes than be separated from the rest of society says Tom Smith president of the Simcoe County Federation of Agri culture Mr Smith told the provincial commission investigating the proposed property tax reforms for Ontario his federation is concerned Basically farmers do not wish to be separated from the rest of society in this regard property tax but would rather pay taxes on tax base com patible with farm income he said The province has proposed that the Ontario government pay the taxes for all farm land farm buildings and managed forests with the farmer paying the taxes for the farm res idence Mr Smith said the farmers would rather be taxed by value in production rather than market value There were four questions he said which had to be answered iwhat effect will this proposal have on farmers ownership rights rrwhat position would farmers be in if some future government decided not to pay taxes lll rural municipalities where the province would be the largest taxpayer who would have thc strongest voice and who would pay for drainage systems etc For several years the federation has been committed to the principle that services to people should be paid for by incomcrclated taxes Mr Sithsaid He told the commission many farmers feel that the proposals only amount to help in paying bill that should not have been charged in the first place Mr Smith said the federation is committed to the preserva tion of the family farms but we do not believe that the pro perty tax proposals will provide this In 1971 farmers federations complained about the high taxes paid by farmers because of the amount of land owned lhe federations asked the province to put education taxes on the personal income taxes but the government refused system was set up by the government to rebate farmers for 23 per cent of their property taxes In l972l thc rebate was changed and increased so far mers now receive 50 per cent of their property taxes from the provincial government Now the government is pro posing to pay all the property taxes for farmland and farm buildings which will be assessed at 100 per cent market value fflllltS will have to pay taxes for farm residences which will be assessed at 50 per cent of market value which is the same for all residential pro perty MI Smith asked the commis sion how the market value would be made for farm houses since they are not separate identity but are part of the farm In case of tax default will the municipality grant scvcraiicc so that the house could be sold for taxes or will the wholc farm have to be sold he asked Ys plea f01 tax exemption at meeting of commission ORILLIA llitthAMtAs in Barrie rillia and Midland matte plea for property tax cxompt ion here lhiirsday tll mg chicscntativcs asked the Ontario property tax rclorin commission to recommend cx ciiiptioii in its report to the govcrninciit latcrthis year Helping the Barrie state its case was Violct taiiipbcll of Mclrosc Avenue single parent of foiir boys It thc YMCAs cXIstciict is filltllftllttl litcaust it has to pay tax she said more youngsters are likely to end up in criminal court Because of llltll financial position Mrs Campbells sons wcrc sponsored and did not have to pay to join the YMCA initially she said lhc Barric now sponsors 200 poor or delinquent clnldrcn dircctor Ed Mayhcw said PARTIALLY lIllll lhc YMCAs in Btu rillia and Midland are all at least pfllllflll exempt from paying property tax but for ditfcrcnt reasons Acts of thc lcgislaturc 30 years ago cxciiiptcd the in Midland and rillia wlnlc municipal bylaw has cxcmptcd tlic Barrie smcc 1000 In brief to the commission Ellie Earth Examiner TheBarrie Examiner Fridgy september 197751 Judge orders probation for Stayner resident Ernest Chambers 3t of Stayner was put on probation for three years by Judge Aiijo in provincial court lhiirsday after he pleaded guilty to break enter and theft Chambers along with another man broke into an unoccupied house near Mines ing May They did about $60 damage entering the house and stole small antique table The table was abandoned after pro vincial police chased the pair aiitl found them in cemetery Judge Aiijo said he would have put Chambers in jail had it not been for Crown Attorney John Alexanders suggestion that he be put on probation Daniel Garland of Lisle will be sentenced Sept 23 Judge Aiijo convicted him of refusing to give breath sample The judge dismisscd charge of im paired driving after two men who were with him testified he had not been driving larland was charged May in Base Borden ltc Blake Morton of the Military Police said he stopped larlands car and Garland was at the wliccl Randy Lefebvrc of Toronto and Marcel Self of Lisle both said Letebvrcwasdriving ludgc Aiijo said there was sufficient doubt for the charge to be dismissed llowcvci there was no doitbt iarland refused to blow into the breath analysis tnacliinc He said he would scntcncc larland who has previous impaired drive iiig conviction to days in jail He delayed the sentence in order to give the man chance toorganizehisallairs LOCAL GENERAL 5000 DAMAGE Insurance adjusters have estimated damage in an early morning fire at the Queens Hotel Thursday at $15000 The fire in hotel room set off sprinklers Most of the damage was from water FALL MEETING The first fall meeting of the Order of St John will be Tuesday at pm at the Royal Victoria Hospital There will be discussion of Facts Pro gram by Lawlor Brown Mrs ChrisSclandtns and Don Camp bell Secretary Gordon Watt Would like all members to at tend as it will bean important meeting CORRECTION The caption on photograph of damaged motorcycie on Page of Tuesdays Examiner had an error Joy Sutherland of Weston was not passenger on the motorcycle but driver of car involved in the accident Donald Baxter of Sanford Street in Barrie was driver of the motorcycle CABLE MEETING The Consumers Association of anadas Barrie chapter will holtl public panel discussion on ablc television Sept at 730 pm at the Blue flillll Room Tonsuniers las 70 Ferris Lane Among topics of discussion will be local cable TV service SOLOCLUB The Barrie Solo Club is hav ing corn roast Saturday It starts at pm All singles 30 and over are welcome For fur ther information call 7284471 72641877 or 7260644 Mr Mayhtw said an anntial ap peal to city council for an ex ciiiptioii or grant is not dc sirablc This could put the in precarious position as it would depend on response attitude and interest of the elected rcprcscntativcs at the time of each ipplication and the pro blcms lacing city council in order to make provisions in tits budget Other sources of revenue would include higher member ship fees thus destroying the total concept of community supported charitable organila tion Mr Mayhcw said and Initcd Appeal funds He noted that thc liiitcd Ap pcal has difficulty in rcaching its pcscnt financial targets THIS IS Barrics shoreline along Kcmpenfelt Bay bet ween Hayfield Street and Memorial Square lean lill has been stockpilcd on the Willi the hardship of pay ing taxes on the irove Street YMCA proixirty there is fear that the assets would have to be forcfeittwl to the govern ment in default of tax pay mcnt the Barrie brief stated Then it the government took over the facilities the total concept of volunteerism would be lost and the cost to ad minister the programs and scr viccs would far exceed any tax OlltfSSlOll loliii lainmcll Midland president said he sees no pio blcin in applying annually to town council for tax exemption Our concern is that it means another added expenditure we would have to go to the com infinity for That makes it hardertoprovidescrviccs shoreline but has not been landscaped lcvclcd or coin plctcd The city is still waiting for the necessary ap provals from the federal and MAYOR DORIAN PARKER made the first presentation to the provincial commission studying the Ontario govern ments 15 proposed property tax reforms Mayor Parker presented the city councils brief to the commission dur ing the public meeting in Orillia Thursday Examiner lfOl Private school board questions tax plans DRILLIA There will be greater burden on the public school system if independent and private schools go out of business because they have to pay property tax the Ontario tax reform commission was told here Thursday If you legislate the private schools out of existence by your tax reforms you shoudl make the taxpayers aware of the ad ditional burden they will have to bear said Mary Jo Quilty representing St lhcicsas Private High School Board in Midland The school board objects to proposed tax reform which would allow tax exemption for only churches cemeteries and Indian land The 1970 Ontario Budget said assistance through grants provincial governments be caitsc the landfill includes waters in the bay Mayor Dorian Parker is calling for public vote in the next would be preferable to tax ex emption for most nonprofit organizations But how will our private high schools be assured of grants in lieu of exemptions Mrs Quilty asked She said the Ontario govern ment has already stated policy of not directing public funds to support private schools Is this policy so recently stated now to be reversed Mrs Quilty said the end of St Ihcresas private high school would result in Midland tax payers paying an additional 3144270 to educate the students directed into the public system Mrs Quiltys complaint was supported iii brief presented by the Sonicoe County Board of IIducation municipal election on the question of landfilling about 445 acres of the bay Ex aminer Photo No simple answers available for citys landfill proposal By PETER DEIOIESIA IIxaniinchtaff Reporter Will Barrie ever put about 45 acres of landfill in Kennwnfelt Bay Thats not simple question to answer Iity council has toltl the city administration to get the necessary approvals and get on with the job Council even authorized the stockpiling of clean landfill on the site between Hayfield and Mulcaster streets plan showing the existing and proposed shoreline of the bay frnm liffin Street to Poyntr Street was prepared by the city engineering depart ment Council approved the plan and sent it to the federal and provincial governments for ap proval In May the city paid for twu advertisements in The Barrie Examiner which outlined the shoreline and proposed landfill area No one made any written ob jcctionstothccity But now Mayor Dorian arker wants to ptit the ques tion to the public in the form of referendum on the December municipal elect ion ballot Mayor Parker says its time the people decide the issue She says number of residents have contacted her opposing the proposal landfill Also she says number of people have written to the federal minister of transporta tion Otto Lang opposing the council action This may be the reason the federal tlcpartiiient has not ap proved councils application for landfill she says The fcdcal department has to approve the landfill which will occupy navigable waters before the provincial ministry of natural resources gives its approval BOTH NECESSARY Both approvals are necessary before the city an start putting landfill in the bay What is causingthcdelay The city administration doesnt know At least five times the city has telephoned the federal department and been told the application would be signed by the minister and sent to Barrie within fivedays In letter dated June 25 Dr Rynard tlCSiincoe North told the city he understood approval would be given before the end of uly Recently the city wrote Dr Rynard letter asking him to help expedite thcmattcr Mayor Parker also claims the letter should not have been sent to Dr Rynard the area federal representative be ausc council lid not direct the administra tion to prepare it But council did tell the ad ministration to get the ap provals The mayor is also objecting to recent Barrie Examiner story which said the develop ment plans for thelakcshorc iii clude extension of Road Council has not approved the extension Mayor Parker says But the province just ap proved amendment to the ci tys official plan which includes map showing the proposed future expansion of Lakcshore Road east and south The road was changed from four lane arterial or major road to two lane meandering parkway When the city cxpropriated the Delaney Boat Lines proper ty at the foot of Bayfield Street the reason given was for expan sion and extension of Lakeshorc Road The city even received money from the provincial ministry of transportation and mum municat ion for the purchase There are still unanswered questions in the citys bid for landfill approvals which has forced long delay in city couir cils plans for park area near akeshore downttwvn Www