{"id":24407,"date":"2019-08-08T08:55:14","date_gmt":"2019-08-08T12:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24407"},"modified":"2019-08-15T19:56:30","modified_gmt":"2019-08-15T23:56:30","slug":"climate-change-could-impact-future-tax-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/climate-change-could-impact-future-tax-bills\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate change could impact future tax bills"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to increasing storms and water flows, the costs of maintaining Aurora\u2019s stormwater management system will \u201cmore than double\u201d in the next 10 years, according to staff, and that could result in a hit on the taxpayer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anca\nMihail, Aurora\u2019s Manager of Engineering, says costs are on the rise and a new\napproach needs to be taken to make sure any hit on taxpayers is fair and\njustified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her\nreport to Council, Ms. Mihail said consultants retained by the Town have found,\nafter analysing several municipalities across the Province, stormwater\nmanagement per capita ranges from $17 to $51, and Aurora falls in the upper\nhalf of that range at $36.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An\nadditional study commissioned by Newmarket, she notes, pegged a \u201chealthy per\ncapita stormwater budget\u201d at $45 to $50. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMunicipalities\nin Ontario use a variety of approaches for recovering costs related to\nstormwater management,\u201d said Ms. Mihail. \u201cPresently, many Ontario\nmunicipalities have either recently completed or are in the process of\ncompleting a review of their stormwater funding approach and rates. However, at\npresent, the most common or conventional form of funding\u2026is the General\nProperty Tax Base, which means stormwater projects will compete with other\nmunicipal priorities for funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince\n1998, Aurora removed the responsibility of funding the Town\u2019s stormwater infrastructure\nfrom the property tax bill and established a user fee, creating a dedicated,\nstable and predictable funding outlook for this type of infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, the\nreport casts doubt on whether this is a sustainable model moving forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to\nensure funding stormwater infrastructure is \u201cfair and equitable\u201d for both\nproperty owners and the municipality,\u201d better options take several factors into\nconsideration, including geography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nconsultants, she said, suggest a \u201cDevelopment Intensity\u201d model of funding as a\nfairer option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is a\ntiered rate system based on the type of property (runoff level) and property\nsize,\u201d she said, noting that, if implemented, Aurora properties would be\ndivided into three runoff groups \u2013 low, medium and high \u2013 with industrial and\ncommercial developments being at the top of the scale. \u201cWith this model, a\nsmall business would not be charged as much as a large business because of the\nsize of the property. Equally, measuring every property is not required because\nof the average imperviousness of the runoff level group is used to calculate\nthe charge. This model balances simplicity and fairness since properties are\ncharged what they should be charged, yet it is not overly costly to administer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHowever,\nthis model is significantly more complex to create and maintain than the\n(current) tiered flat rate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the\nadoption and implementation of this new funding model will be contingent on a\nfuture study, the study itself received the formal green light at the most\nrecent meeting of Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking\nto both this study and a related motion from Councillor Wendy Gaertner,\nCouncillor Michael Thompson stressed the cost of maintaining the system as-is,\nand said there needs to be a buy-in from all levels of government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The Environmental Commissioner of Ontario put out a report [that said] stormwater infrastructure deficit in Ontario alone is $6.8 billion and there are a number of reports and studies out there that talk about the various municipalities,\u201d he said. \u201cWe cannot do it alone. You need the help of both the Federal and Provincial government to address the infrastructure deficit. AMO (Association of Municipalities of Ontario) has been talking about it for years, so I just think there is a broader conversation. We can talk about levies and everything else to try and address some of those issues, but it will not be enough, no different from just a general infrastructure deficit in Ontario alone. There are bigger strategies that need to be talked about. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEveryone\nin every municipality recognizes that financially they do not have the\nresources to do it alone, that infrastructure deficit needs to be tackled and\nwe need to continue to advocate both provincially and federally to help us. At\nthe end of the day, and we have talked about this many, many, many times, that\nof every tax dollar, municipalities only get nine cents of that dollar. The\nrest goes to the Provincial and Federal, yet we own 60 per cent of the assets\nin Ontario. We cannot replace the actual values. It is a serious concern.”<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Costs to maintain Aurora’s existing stormwater management system will “more than double” over the next ten years due to climate change: report<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6lF","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 12:19:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24407\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}