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Section 5 - Roles & Responsibilities

The reform of the assessment and property tax systems has resulted in changes to the roles and responsibilities of the various participants. The provincial government continues to set the province wide policies and rules. The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation has been given the responsibility of property reassessment across the province. Municipalities now have greater flexibility in setting property tax policies that meet local needs.

5.1 Provincial Government

The provincial government sets the policies and rules affecting property assessment and taxation in Ontario. It does this by creating legislation, called Provincial Statutes and also creates regulations, which are authorised under the Statutes. There are three ministries that play a role in assessment and tax policy.

Ministry of Finance

The principal ministry involved in setting assessment and tax policies is the Ministry of Finance. Under the Fair Municipal Finance Act, 1997, the Ministry created a new province-wide, current value assessment system, which also introduced new property classes. The Minister of Finance sets assessment policy and standards across the province and is responsible for Ontario's Tax and Property Assessment Legislation. The Minister of Finance is responsible for establishing the majority of the regulations governing reassessment and tax policy, such as Bill 35 introduced in the 2008 Ontario budget. This Ministry is also responsible for setting education tax rates for all property classes.

Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing

The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing is responsible for establishing some of the regulations under the Municipal Act and the Tenant Protection Act associated with property tax policy. As the primary contact with municipalities, it deals more with the implementation of legislation and regulations.

Ministry of Education

The Ministry of Education is responsible for establishing the deadlines for municipalities to pay their education tax installments. Although not responsible for setting the education tax rates, this Ministry is responsible for allocating the education taxes to the school boards.

5.2 Municipal Property Assessment Corporation

The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) is responsible for assessing all property in Ontario. MPAC started operating on December 31, 1998, when the Government of Ontario transferred responsibility for property assessment to the Corporation. MPAC carries out its activities in accordance with the provisions of the Assessment Act, as well as regulations issued under the Act by the province of Ontario. Its main responsibility is to calculate an assessed value, or assessment, for each of the over four million properties in Ontario. These values are provided to individual property owners in the form of assessment notices and to municipalities on assessment rolls. Municipalities use these values when they calculate property taxes.

Taxpayers have the right to appeal the assessed value of their properties. This is done through the Assessment Review Board (ARB). The ARB is an independent tribunal which is responsible for hearing property assessment appeals. It has the authority to change an assessed value. All parties to an appeal (property owner, MPAC, the municipality) can present evidence at an appeal hearing. The Board's decision is binding. If it reduces an assessed value, the municipality will reduce the taxes for that property.

5.3 Online Property Tax Analysis (OPTA)

The Online Property Tax Analysis (OPTA) system is provided to municipalities by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs. OPTA consists of an assessment database of all properties in the province and associated report generators that permit municipalities to test local tax policy options. It can also be used to carry out the capping adjustments required under the Municipal Act.

5.4 Region of Peel and Lower-tier Municipalities

Under the rules and regulations created by the province, the Region of Peel, as the upper-tier municipality is responsible for the creation of property tax policies throughout the Region. Although most property tax policies are set at the regional level, the Region works in co-operation with the lower-tier municipalities.

Region of Peel policy decisions include:

• tax ratio setting or delegation of tax ratio setting to the lower-tier municipalities
• optional property classes
• graduated tax rates for commercial and industrial classes of properties
• phasing-in of property tax increases/decreases
• how to fund the mandated caps for multi-residential, commercial, industrial properties
• charity and similar organizations rebate programs
• low-income senior and disabled homeowners programs

Appendix 2 (PDF 9KB, 1 page) outlines the Tax Policy responsibilities and related deadlines for the Region of Peel.

Lower-tier municipalities are responsible for the following:

• tax ratio setting if delegated by the upper-tier municipality
• administration of the property tax system, including billing, collection, and rebates of property taxes
• taxpayer inquiries
• adjustments to tax bill
• tax relief for people in hardship (unduly burdensome provision)
• tax reduction/rebate for heritage properties
  

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Revised: Friday July 29 2011

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