Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Reporter

A town hall meeting was hosted in Alleyn and Cawood on Saturday for residents of the municipality hoping to better understand why their property valuations were up by 370 per cent, which they first learned of when they received their property assessment with their tax bill last winter.
The meeting was hosted by the task force of residents, local elected officials and municipal staff that formed this spring to raise awareness and advocate for changes to what they say is a flawed property assessment process.
Isabelle Cardinal, Alleyn and Cawood’s director general and also a member of the task force, was among those hosting the town hall. THE EQUITY spoke with her ahead of the meeting to get some key questions answered.
Answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Q: How are property valuations currently performed?
A: What happens is every municipality has what is called a triennial roll. It’s a research of the real estate market. An evaluator from the MRC looks at all the properties that were sold, including in the 18 months before this triennial roll is deposited, and they just go through and compare the sale price of properties sold with the current municipal evaluation.
That usually gives you a figure. So for example, in our municipality there were a lot of vacant lots that were worth about $12,000 and were selling for $40,000, $50,000. If you take those two and you divide them together, it’s going to give you your comparative factor.
Every three years they do an in-depth analysis of the real estate market, and they divide it into four categories as well – housing, forestry, vacant lots and cottages. When you get your year one triennial roll, they do a more in depth analysis and look at each sale within its respective category, and each category will give you a different comparative factor.
What happened to us is that we are currently in year three of the triennial roll, and in year two and three of the triennial roll, the analysis is not as in -depth as when they are preparing the new roll in year one. In years two and three, instead of dividing it by category, it’s one generalized comparative factor across the board.
[Last year] we had over 120 sales of vacant lots, but we didn’t have the same amounts of residential sales. So we had a number generalized across the board but it’s not really representative of our real estate market.
[THE EQUITY’s note: The 2023 assessments in year three of the municipality’s triennial roll set Alleyn and Cawood’s comparative factor at 3.7 per cent, based on empty lots that sold for prices much higher than their value, but not based on what homes were selling for. The municipality will receive its year one triennial roll in September, which will offer a far more accurate portrait of its property values.]
Q: What’s wrong with this process, in your opinion?
A: Right now a lot of people are saying the comparative factor doesn’t have a big impact but it does because our municipal shares are calculated based on that, our Sûreté de Québec taxes, our school taxes, and mutations tax. So the comparative factor does have a big impact, and it’s not really representative of what’s happening.
We, as a municipality this year, are taxing on property value not taking into consideration the comparative factor. So for example, our total evaluations of all the properties in our municipality is about $75 million, but this year, because of our new comparative factor, we are paying shares to the MRC based on a total municipal evaluation of $277 million. We’re kind of almost $200 million overcharged, so that’s a big problem.
Myself, I’m a ratepayer from here. And on my tax bill, my house is worth more than $1 million, but I can guarantee you, I will never sell my house for one million dollars. If somebody wants to buy it for that much, I’ll be happy to pack my boxes and leave.
That’s why it’s important. Because small municipalities like us, whenever we see a lot of sales in a sector, it gives you not the right average for your comparative factor. And I’ve told the other DGs that some of them will be in the same boat, because there will be other subdivision projects.
The evaluator did his job right. I don’t doubt the data that he used. The thing I am doubting is that lots sold for three times more, but not houses, so that’s where the problem is. We cannot generalize that. It’s a problem with the process. The process does not work.
Q: Why do you start paying higher municipal shares now if a more in-depth roll will come out in September?
There’s a couple of MRCs in Quebec that are still using that formula of comparative factor but I would say that most MRCs across Quebec have their own bylaw with a different calculation for the shares. I’ve made a request at the MRC to see if they could have a bylaw to minimize the impact of the comparative factor on our shares. Because in Alleyn and Cawood, we went from paying $114,000 a year, and this year we’re almost paying $300,000, and this is a big portion of our budget. The MRC keeps that because they make their budget based on these revenues. I don’t know if municipalities are not fully aware of that or what’s happening.
And we are not currently taxing our rate payers on these evaluations. So I’ve made the request. Tim Ferrigan at the MRC has been doing a lot of research. I have to say he’s been a great help for me by sharing knowledge and assisting me. Now I’m just hoping the people in charge of the finance at the MRC truly take this into consideration and create a bylaw. I need to also mention that Alicia Jones, the director general for Chichester, was in a similar situation two years ago and she asked the MRC to work on a bylaw to change the calculation of her shares, and nothing has been done. I’m hoping that this time around they take us seriously because if something would have been done two years ago Alleyn and Cawood would not be in this situation right now.
Q: So how are you proposing the process be changed?
What we are proposing is that the comparative factor in year two and three of the triennial roll has no effect on the calculation of our municipal shares or anything else, and that the comparative factor is based by value instead of units.
We are asking the province to lower the impact of this comparative factor so that it does not have an effect on the municipal shares we pay to the MRC, on the calculation of the SQ tax that all the municipalities pay for the police force, on the mutations tax, or the school tax. So we’re asking the province to review its policy.
We can keep [the comparative factor] as a reference for what’s happening on the real estate market, but I don’t think it should have an impact on items that we need to pay because these evaluations are an idea but they don’t indicate the true value. The true values are really coming in year one of our triennial roll. So we’re asking for our evaluations to be frozen for three years. And then when it’s time to have a new triennial roll, our evaluation can be adjusted with the real estate market, per category.
Q: What impact will this 3.7 comparative factor have on ratepayers?
One thing that I need to say is that the municipality won’t have a 3.7 comparative factor in 2025. I already had conversations with the evaluator and the comparative factor is going to be lower. We can see vacant lots facing a bigger comparative factor because of what happened with the development, however in housing and cottages, we don’t see the same trend. That’s why I’m saying that our global evaluation for the municipality is going to be much lower than what it is right now with this 3.7 comparative factor.
When we have the true evaluations in September, that’s when we’ll be able to start working on our budget and figuring out what our mill rate is going to be for 2025. I know council already adopted a resolution in March that the mill rate will be adjusted according to the evaluation. We don’t want to see a big jump in municipal tax. We could have a slight increase, which is normal according to inflation, but we can guarantee that nobody is going to see a 370 per cent increase on their tax bill.
We have no power over [the school tax, SQ tax, or mutations tax], unfortunately, but school taxes are coming out in July, so I have yet to see what the impact of the comparative factor will be on our school tax.
What I’m really curious to see, when our new triennial roll will be deposited on Sept. 15, is what our global evaluation will be in comparison with this evaluation taking into consideration the comparative factor.