KANATA NORTH NEWS Marianne Wilkinson Councillor, Kanata North 2009 PROPERTY TAXES

Determining the property taxes paid is a complex matter, only partially dependent on the city budget. These include which of the 15 classes of property your property falls within, various mitigation measures to help low income seniors, disabled persons and farm properties, the tax ratio for each class of property, provincial regulations which reduce the taxes paid by commercial properties to 50% of any budgetary increase, your new property assessment, school taxes payable, and capping provisions such as having only 25% of any increase in your property assessment apply this year. Council approved a budget for this year that had a 4.9% average tax increase. This will now be decreased because of a number of factors. First, since the increase in property values in Ottawa was at a lower per cent than the provincial average, the education taxes you pay will be reduced. Also, since the value of commercial properties increased more than residential values there would have been a shift to those properties but under provincial policy only 50% of any tax increase can be passed on to commercial properties, meaning that a greater share has to be borne by residential properties. However, due to the drop in educational taxes and taking into account all of the other measures required the increase this year will be 4.1% in urban areas (average property assessed at 285,000 paying $3,580) and 4.6 % for rural properties ($3,036 for a $285,000 home). The higher % increase in rural areas is because the urban transit levy is not increasing this year, resulting in a lower % overall increase. Between 1993 and 2009 property tax increases were much lower than the cost of living or other increases. During that time the average Ottawa house value increased by 90.5%, the consumer price index increased 37%, federal pensions increased 35% and property taxes increased 24% (in Kanata the increase was 23.6%). For your own property this year, the change in taxes will be influenced by the change in your market value assessment. If your property increase is below 13% you will have a decrease in taxes. If your assessment grew by more than 13% taxes will increase, phased in over 4 years.

CARP RIVER
The Third Party Review of the Carp River Restoration Plan was released last week and has been posted on the City website at ottawa.ca/carpriver. If you

wish to comment on the review you can send them to carp.review@ottawa.ca by 9 am on Monday, Apr. 20 and your comments will be considered in the report that will be tabled at the Planning and Environment Committee in May. You can also make representations at that meeting. After approval by Council, the environmental assessments impacted by this review will be posted for 30 days during which representation can be made to the Ministry of the Environment, following which the Minister will make appropriate approvals. The review concluded that the hydrologic and hydraulic models that were prepared throughout stages of the planning process, as corrected when an initial error was discovered, are suitable for use in development in Kanata West. The report outlines an interim implementation strategy involving providing for an additional volume of 85,600 cubic metres of water storage spreads among all development lands. Of the 22 separate environmental assessments that form part of three concurrent and integrated Class Environmental Assessments, 15 are still valid, while 7 will need to have the 30 day posting and some adjustments. I am pleased that this very comprehensive review has shown that there are no significant problems with the Carp River restoration. As well as the consultants report staff will provide information on the impact of climate change in the report to Committee in order to fulfill all of the requirements of the Provincial Minister of the Environment.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

April 15 - May 15 Cleaning the Capital. Sign up now. April 18 9 am, Big cookie sale, St. Johns, 325 Sandhill (including my donation!) April 18 10 am 5 pm, Eco-Stewardship Fair, RA Centre April 20 6 pm, Public Library Board meets at the Mlacak Centre April 25 9 am - noon, Electronics Recycling Depot, Waste Management April 25 Annual Briarbrook & Morgans Grant Clean Up Day April 27 7 - 9 pm, Kanata North Ward Council May 2 9:30 am, Annual Beaverbrook Clean Up Day with BBQ, Kids Crafts May 30 8 am noon, Beaverbrook & Morgans Grant Yard Sale

Serving the residents and businesses in Kanata North

To receive the Kanata North Newsletter, to deal with a concern or make a suggestion contact me at 613-580-2474, email Marianne.Wilkinson@ottawa.ca or through www.mariannewilkinson.com.