The Town of The Blue Mountains will not be implementing a vacant home tax anytime in the near future.
At its committee of whole the meeting on April 24, council voted 7-0 in favour of dropping the idea of implementing a vacant home tax for the time being. During the budget process earlier in the year, council had requested more information on the tax from staff.
Ruth Prince, the town’s director of finance, presented a report that outlined that the process to establish a vacant home tax would be a significant amount of work for the town.
Prince explained the tax isn’t widely used across Ontario - it is in place in only Toronto and Ottawa (Hamilton is in the process of implementing the tax measure) – and would require the town to get the permission of both Grey County and the provincial ministry of finance to proceed. Prince also said the town would be responsible for establishing its definition of a vacant home, the rates it would charge, criteria for exemptions and the establishment of an adjudication and appeal process for homeowners who disagreed with the town’s assessment of their property.
“Because it’s not being widely used, I’m recommending we stop and pause on this one and focus our efforts on (a municipal accommodation tax),” said Prince.
A municipal accommodation tax is a fee charged on all overnight stays in the municipality and paid to the town as a levy.
The recommendation to leave the vacant home tax on the table found a lot of support from council.
“We need more information,” said Coun. Gail Ardiel. “I’m just not ready. I’d prefer to defer this one.”
Deputy Mayor Peter Bordignon agreed.
“At this juncture in time, I think it’s not the right way to go,” he said.
A vacant home tax would be applied to homes left empty after being purchased as investment properties. The tax is meant to encourage property owners to rent out their empty units. Revenue collected by the town through such a tax would then be used for affordable/attainable housing programs.
