CA, board hit with huge tax bill-BayToday.ca exclusive

The Near North District School Board and the North Bay-Mattawa Conservation Authority have been slapped with a $725,000 property tax for Vincent Massey Public School and the upper chalet, and chairwoman Eunice Saari believes the city may have had a hand in it.

The bill, dated July 27, 2004 and covering 2002, 2003 and 2004, refers to 15 Janey Avenue, the address of Vincent Massey Public School and also the location of the upper lodge previously owned by the North Bay-Mattawa Conservation Authority as part of the Jack Pine Hill ski operation.

A Commercial Taxable (CT) tax class has been assigned to the building, which was valued at $4.5 million on the bill. Education and municipal taxes were also included on the bill, a copy of which was obtained by BayToday.ca.

“I’m really very annoyed by this,” Saari said, adding the school board is appealing.

“We certainly will not be paying this. Schools are not taxed and I really believe this was done because the city loaned money to the conservation authority and now they’re trying to get all the money back.”

CA secretary-manager Brian Tayler said the authority has also filed an appeal but hasn't heard back yet on a date.

Tayler said conservation authorities only pay taxes on vacant land they own but not on any improvements made to that land.

Board trustee Randy Sheppard, speaking for himself, said he wouldn’t be surprised if MPAC was tipped off about the issue by the city.

North Bay Mayor Vic Fedeli called the allegations “salacious.”

“They’re not based on any facts and for elected officials to be even suggesting that in the slightest way is highly flammable and not very appreciated,” Fedeli said.

“We’re not in the habit of chasing dollars, of ambulance chasing.”

He added that MPAC sends the city the assessment lists, and the city just adds the tax rates and mails out the bills.

But Saari said the board owned 90 per cent of Vincent Massey, with 10 per cent of it, the upper chalet, owned by the authority.

“If we owned all of it why would we have purchased the lodge this year,” Saari said.

When the conservation authority did own the upper chalet, Saari said, it paid the board a share of operation costs.

Darryl Bender, a Northern Ontario account manager in MPAC’s municipal relations department, said the matter was “brought to our attention” in 2003 through an “internal” correspondence.

Bender called the situation “very unusual” since school boards normally receive tax exemptions.

He also said MPAC lawyers had researched the Assessment Act, the Conservation Authorities Act, and the Education Act before rendering a legal opinion.

“But after a great deal of research they concluded the board simply didn’t qualify for the exemption.”