MRC to take legal action to recover Alleyn-et-Cawood shares, interest
MRC to take legal action to recover Alleyn-et-Cawood shares, interest
The saga of the Municipality of Alleyn-et-Cawood’s 2024 shares continued at the MRC Pontiac council of mayors meeting on January 22, as council voted to mandate a law firm to recover the nearly $300,000 they are owed, plus interest and costs.
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.
Representatives of the municipality have previously stated that they dispute the amount that they were charged, and are prepared to go to court over the issue. Their council had submitted a resolution to the MRC offering to pay roughly 50% of the amount owed, as they calculated that it was in line with what they should be paying, but didn’t receive a response.
At the council meeting in December, council passed a revised share calculation formula, which included a clause that stated interest of 2% per month would be charged on any outstanding 2024 shares not paid by December 31, 2024. MRC Director General Kim Lesage told CHIP 101.9 that by her calculations the municipality had already incurred tens of thousands of dollars in interest charges. She added that she was unaware of any other jurisdiction where a municipality had refused to pay their shares.
The resolution was to hire the law firm Deveau Dufour Mottet Avocats for the purposes of recovering the shares from the municipality, along with interest and costs, at a price tag of roughly $200/hour. The resolution passed 14-3, with Alleyn-et-Cawood Mayor Carl Mayer, Otter Lake Mayor Jennifer Quaile and Thorne pro-Mayor Robert Wills voting against. There was no representative of the Municipality of Litchfield at the meeting.
Since the MRC and Alleyn-et-Cawood are both represented by the law firm RPGL, they were both required to retain a different firm for this dispute.
A matter of principle
MRC Pontiac Warden Jane Toller stated that she had called representatives of the municipality before the December 31 deadline and urged them to make a payment as a sign of good faith and to reduce the amount of interest they would be charged.
Speaking after the meeting, Mayer said that they they had the money, but were fighting the share amount on principle, and had been advised by their legal council to not submit any partial payments. He said that his council and residents were in favour of fighting the case and they had set aside some extra money in this year’s budget for legal costs.
