The Blue Mountains Mayor Alar Soever believes that Grey County has not done enough to let local seniors and disabled people know about a program that would help them offset the costs of rising property taxes.
At county council’s meeting on Oct. 13, Soever signalled his intention to bring forward a resolution that would ask county staff to advertise and communicate to the public that tax relief is available to low-income seniors and low-income disabled people and to work with lower-tier municipalities to ensure the proper application documents are available on each municipal website.
Soever was referring to bylaw 5112-21 passed by county council in May 2021 entitled: “a by-law to provide for the cancellation of tax increases for the purpose of relieving financial hardship for low-income seniors or a low-income person with disabilities.”
“Recently I became aware that many seniors were unaware of this program,” said Soever, who explained that the bylaw allows for low-income seniors and low-income disabled people to apply to their lower municipality for relief from rising property taxes.
Soever said he recently sent an email to all nine municipalities in Grey County to inquire about the program. Only the Township of Southgate, Municipality of Grey Highlands and the Town of The Blue Mountains responded to his inquiry.
According to Soever in 2021, Southgate processed three applications totaling $123.31 in relief, Grey Highlands processed one and The Blue Mountains processed zero. There have been zero applications in 2022.
Soever said he looked for the application forms for the program.
“I have since checked the websites of the other municipalities and could not find any mention of this program or the requisite forms,” he said. “It appears the two-tier system where the county sets tax policy and the lower-tier is tasked with implementing it, has let our seniors and disabled down.”
Soever’s resolution would direct county staff to advertise and communicate the details of the program to the public and ensure that each local municipality has the application forms available. It will be debated at county council’s meeting on October 27.
