Property taxes will be increasing throughout Bruce County.
During Thursday’s county council meeting, the Director of Corporate Services, Edward Henley, made a presentation to council, outlining how taxes would change for this year.
Henley says that the increase for 2023 is $33.97 per $100,000 in assessed value for a property.
The assessed value is based on numbers from January 2016, as the new assessment cycle hasn’t started yet.
Those increases will be seen on the final two tax bills for 2023 from the lower-tier municipalities.
“The recent challenges with inflation, especially for new construction, have led to increasing pressures for replacing county infrastructure, such as roads and bridges,” says Henley in an interview with Bayshore News.
He adds, “One of the challenges the county faces, is that in the past, the focus has been on keeping taxes low, and keeping or sometimes increasing service levels. However, in some areas, money was not being saved in reserves to replace our many bridges and other infrastructure. And now the choice is to raise taxes or to borrow and have to pay interest on the loans. The county has decided to increase taxes to assist in replacing our infrastructure, in an effort to save money from having to pay interest on loans.”
For example, there are currently two bridges, one in Walkerton and one in Paisley, which need replacing; each bridge is expected to cost $10 million to replace.
Work on the Teeswater bridge in Paisley is currently underway.
If the county borrows the money to replace a bridge, it could end up spending an additional $5-10 million in interest on the loan.
He says that it made more sense to slightly increase taxes to cover the cost of the bridge because it would prevent having a high-interest loan to pay back.
Henley says that “You could argue that [previous councils] didn’t charge enough.”
He continues saying that the goal is to make small adjustments now to prevent issues in the future, particularly with additional pressures of growth.
Where tax money will be going in Bruce County:
– $800,000 on new paramedic vehicles
– $10 million toward the construction of the expanded paramedic station in Port Elgin
– $10 million ongoing bridge replacement in Paisley
– $2.8 million in housing facilities repair and replacement
– $4.6 million in road repairs and replacements
– $1.7 million to be spent on long-term care operations
– $200,000 long-term care modernization
– $1 million in other bridge and culvert repairs
The county also renewed programs to provide tax relief to eligible property owners who are elderly and or have disabilities.
They also have options for eligible charities that own property.
- A By-Law to Provide Tax Relief to Certain Elderly and Disabled Persons who are Owners of Real Property in the County of Bruce
- Application Form for the Tax Relief to Certain Elderly and Disabled Persons who are Owners of Real Property in the County of Bruce
- A By-Law to Establish a Tax Rebate Program for the purposes of Providing Relief from Taxes on Eligible Property Occupied by Eligible Charities
