The large majority of Ontario’s 400 municipalities have a Farm Tax Class ratio of 25 percent. In fact, Chatham-Kent, with a ratio of 22 percent, is one of the lowest in the province.
At tonight’s council meeting, council will discuss moving the current ratio by a percentage point every year until it reaches 25 percent in 2023, which is the Farm Tax class ratio that over 87 percent of the province currently sits at.
The Farm Tax Ratio has sat at 22 percent in Chatham-Kent since 2004. At that time there was a rise in farm assessments and farmers were experiencing low commodity prices. However, since then the commodity market has rebounded, as well as residential prices have risen sharply, outpacing farm prices over the past five years, which could result in more of a tax burden for residential taxpayers in the future once the province’s next property assessment cycle takes place.
If approved, it would lower the tax burden on the municipality’s residential sector and raise the farm sector tax burden.
Predictably, Chatham-Kent’s top two farm groups are not impressed, as both The Kent Federation of Agriculture and the Christian Farmers Federation of Chatham-Kent are against raising the Farm Class Tax ratio.
