There was considerable debate at Monday’s Chatham-Kent council meeting about what services rural and urban residents receive and who should pay for it.
Council discussed eliminating the area rating for policing, streetlights and horticulture, and having all Chatham-Kent residents pay the same for those services no matter where you live.
The purpose for the changes was to modernize and streamlining the municipality’s taxes by simplifying property tax calculations and evenly distributing the cost of services among those who benefit from them.
Mayor Darrin Canniff says the cost difference for policing dates back to before amalgamation.
“Some of the areas didn’t pay for police service when they first amalgamated, the OPP were providing service free of charge form the province,” Canniff explains. “The council back in the day said no no, we can’t change the taxes, so those taxes weren’t included back then, there was a difference between urban and rural.”
Councillors had concerns about the level of police service and response times that rural citizens receive versus what urban citizens receive.
“Everyone receives the same service, so if you call 911 regardless of where you’re at in the community, you receive the exact same service,” Canniff says. “The difference was in response time, if you’re out in a rural area, the response time is longer because of the geographic area.”
Canniff says there were also issues with police visibility, again due to the large geographic area officers are covering.
Ward Five Councillor Carmen McGregor says more public consultation was needed to make a proper decision.
After the dust settled, council decided to keep area rating for policing and streetlights, but did decide by a narrow vote to eliminate the area rating for horticulture.
This means rural residents, for example those who live in Mitchell’s Bay, if they have a house assessed at $200,000, would pay an extra $6 a year on their property taxes, while a house assessed at $200,000 in Wallaceburg would save $2 a year in property taxes.
