A sharp rise in the price of farmland could mean a major shift of the tax burden onto farmers, Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Mark Wales told local federation members on Oct. 27.
Wales, the guest speaker at the Wellington Federation of Agriculture’s (WFA) annual banquet and meeting, told a packed house at the Fergus Legion hall that they should take a careful look at the updated assessment notices currently being distributed by the Ontario Municipal Property Assessment Corporation.
Between Jan. 1, 2008 and Jan. 1, 2012, said Wales, farmland values have increased by 54 per cent. At the same time, the increase in assessed value of rural residential properties was only 12%.
“That means, if nothing changes, there’s going to be a fundamental shift of assessment to farmland from residential,” Wales warned.
That means farmers will be paying a larger share toward municipal services in general, including those they don’t use, said Wales, noting, as an example, that in municipalities which don’t area rate the cost of garbage pick up, “your farmland is going to be subsidizing the cost of garbage pickup for every household in the municipality.”
Wales said, “It’s not fair that the assessment burden shifts to farmland that’s not getting any more services – it doesn’t use many municipal services anyway.”
Wales urged the farmers in the crowd to talk to their municipal council members and encourage them to lower the traditional tax rate applied to farmland, generally 25 per cent of the rural residential rate.
“It doesn’t’ have to be 25 per cent of the rural residential rate – it can be up to 25 per cent,” he pointed out.
At the federal level, Wales said the agriculture industry is in need of longer-term vision.
“We have no long-term strategy for food production in this county. We need to have a long-term plan,” said Wales, who feels the industry needs to define concepts such as optimum farm size and the family farm, “so the government can create policies around that.”
Farmers also need to look ahead to a future in which Canada is “one of only six countries that are going to be a net exporter of food,” and the attendant role in global security.
“If you do not have food, you have social unrest,” he stated.
Commenting on the devastating drought farmers suffered through last summer, Wales praised the western Canadian producers who have been sending hay to Ontario through the Hay East program.
However, he noted the program could use some government funding to assist with transportation costs.
On the impact of the drought, Wales said, “I’ve never in my life seen anything like it.
“You could drive by 100 corn fields and there would not be one that you would bother to put a combine in.”
Executive acclaimed
During the meeting, executive members for the 2012-13 term were selected by the WFA. All positions were filled by acclamation, with Gord Flewwelling returning as president, and Janet Harrop, Stephen Dineen and David Parker named as vice-presidents. Directors for the coming term are: Charles Weber (Minto), Ruby Lennox (Wellington North), Steve Logel, Arnold Van Ankum and John Hollen (Mapleton), John Sealy (Centre Wellington), Gary Nelson and Greg Hannam (Guelph-Eramosa), Marike Wevers (Erin), Barclay Nap (Puslinch). Jon Clyne and Melisa Luymes are directors at large.
