Alleyn-et-Cawood residents send petition to Quebec City, request changes to MRC share calculations
Alleyn-et-Cawood residents send petition to Quebec City, request changes to MRC share calculations
A sizable contingent of Alleyn-et-Cawood residents turned out to MRC Pontiac’s council of mayors meeting on September 18 to advocate for changes to way it calculates municipal shares, the fees that the 18 municipalities pay to the MRC.
The sale of a number of lots for amounts well over their assessed value in the small rural municipality caused a major increase to municipal property assessments. The municipality has the ability to adjust the mill rate, or the amount taxed per $100 of evaluation, meaning that a big jump in assessment wouldn’t necessarily mean a huge jump in property taxes. Homeowners also have the ability to challenge an assessment that they deem inaccurate.
However, their municipal shares to the MRC increased substantially, as did some residents’ school taxes. Alleyn-et-Cawood DG Isabelle Cardinal explained that their shares jumped from $114,000 to $289,147 in 2024, coming out of an annual budget of around $800,000.
She said their municipal council decided not to increase residents’ taxes and instead cut services, primarily to road maintenance, including cutting one seasonal snowplow driver position.
The Alleyn-et-Cawood residents requested that the MRC pass a resolution to calculate MRC shares based on the current municipal evaluation, without including comparative factor. Comparative factor is a way of expressing the difference between the sale price of a property and the assessed value, and is used to determine what’s called the standardized value.
While many MRCs use comparative factor when determining MRC shares, Cardinal said some don’t, and others use different formulas.
While the MRC council declined to pass a resolution to eliminate comparative factor from the calculations, they did pass a notice of motion that they would be reviewing possible changes to the bylaw, which could be voted on down the road. Several municipal officials who spoke to CHIP 101.9 after the meeting said that they wanted to first understand the possible long-term impacts that such a change would have, and any other options that were available.
National Assembly petition
Alleyn-et-Cawood residents also managed to get roughly 3,000 signatures on a petition asking Minister of Municipal Affairs Andrée Laforest to look at the municipality’s comparative factor and also review the triennial roll process. After tabling the petition last week, Pontiac MNA André Fortin said that he had a discussion with the minister about the issue.
He said he was unaware of any other municipality in the province experiencing a similar situation.
