Mayors draft changes to share formula, Alleyn-et-Cawood prepared for legal battle
Mayors draft changes to share formula, Alleyn-et-Cawood prepared for legal battle
Though the turnout was smaller than previous meetings, several residents of Alleyn-et-Cawood turned up to the MRC Pontiac council of mayors meeting on November 27 to voice their opposition to a sharp increase in their shares this past year. Shares are the fees that municipalities are charged by the MRC for various services, and Alleyn-et-Cawood’s surged by more than 150% between 2023 and 2024, from $112,539 to $289,148. 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, which spurred the spike.
Though their shares are set to decline significantly in 2025, residents have repeatedly requested that council eliminate comparative factor from the share calculations. Comparative factor is a way of expressing the difference between a property’s assessed value and its sale price.
At the meeting, a draft by-law for a new share formula was presented, which would reduce the impact of comparative factor by calculating half a municipality’s share based on their assessed value and half on standardized value (which includes comparative factor). Currently, the shares are calculated entirely based on standardized value, which is the default formula for MRCs that haven’t opted to create their own by-law.
MRC Director General Kim Lesage said that the draft-bylaw was the result of a lot of research into how other jurisdictions calculate their shares and the impact of various alterations. She added that it had been discussed at length at both the budget committee and amongst the mayors at their plenary meetings.
In an interview following the meeting, Alleyn-et-Cawood Director General Isabelle Cardinal said that this change to the share formula was “better than nothing” but wasn’t what they had hoped for.
Warden Jane Toller pointed out following the meeting that Alleyn-et-Cawood is the only municipality in the region that hasn’t currently paid its shares for 2024.
Speaking after the meeting, Mayor Carl Mayer said that his council was prepared to go to court over the issue, and had set aside money in their budget for legal action.
Cardinal explained that they were hoping a legal battle wouldn’t be necessary, and they woudn’t have to pay the inflated share price.
