by BETTER FARMING STAFF
While farm properties - land, house and buildings – have gone up in value 34 per cent on average over the last four years in Ontario, farmland has gone up 46 per cent during the same period. The increases are based on actual farmer-to-farmer sales.
Larry Hummel, chief assessor for the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC), which announced the findings this week, says there has been a dramatic difference in the rate of assessment increase between residential properties, farm properties and farmland.
“Across Ontario,” Hummel says, “the residential tax class is up 18 per cent on average.” The period of assessment was from Jan. 1, 2008 to Jan. 1, 2012.
Mark Wales is president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture and a municipal councilor in Township of Malahide in the Aylmer area. He says farmland values in his municipality went up 60 per cent over the four-year period. Wales is advising farmers across the province to make sure their assessments are accurate when they come out this fall because there is a finite time allowed for appeals.
“Take a close look at farm buildings,” he advises. “Make sure an old bunkhouse is not assessed as a dwelling, for example.” Wales says while farmland in Malahide went up 60 per cent over the four-year period, residential properties went up just 12 per cent.
Under Ontario law, farm homes and one acre of property on which the home sits are taxed at the same rate as residential property in the municipality. The maximum tax rate for farmland is 25 per cent of the residential tax rate. However, municipalities can adjust the tax rate so that it is lower than 25 per cent of the residential rate and Wales says he is reminding farmers on council of that fact.
Hummel says the new snapshot of the value of land in Ontario leads to a “reallocation of the share the property represents in the entire community.” It’s up to the municipality “whether or not they want to adjust the rate; do they want to make it lower than 25 per cent,” he notes.
When the assessment arrives, Hummel recommends that landowners look it over and, if everything is in order, ask this question: “Could I have sold this property for that amount?” If the answer is yes, he says, “then you can put the paper away. We’ve done our job.”
If there is a problem, MPAC has an interactive website. The website has more detail about the assessment, although Hummel says it is more geared to residential at this point.
“If there is a question about the value of the farm and how we’ve assessed it,” Hummel says, then (taxpayers) should call the MPAC call centre (1 866 296- 6722), and voice their concerns. If they think the value is definitely wrong, they should file a request for consideration. Once that’s reviewed by an assessor and an answer is given, the applicant has 60 days to appeal to the Assessment Review Board for a hearing.
The steps for appealing an assessment are listed on MPAC’s website. BF
Comments
The big problem underpinning this recent 46% increase in the price of farmland, is that it is based on an artificlal foundation - artificially-created prices for dairy and poultry products, and an artificially-created demand for corn to be converted to ethanol. It's dumb, and getting dumber. For example, yesterday a local 150 acre farm, with about 130 acres of moderately-drained land, and so-so buildings, sold by auction to a chicken farmer from about 5 miles away, for $1.85 million dollars, which is roughly $14,200 per workable acre, and at $240 per acre rent, is just under 60 times earnings, or in other words, a huge "bubble". The OFA may eventually understand why there are so few farmers under the age of 30 (except those who were born with quota under their pillow), but until then, the OFA would seem to be quite content to worry about rather trivial issues like bunkhouses instead of major issues like the legislated polarization of agriculture.
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
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I want to echo, Stephen's thoughts, i sold a farm this summer for almost twice what i paid for it in 2006 and it was purchased by a dairy farmer> Only a dairy farmer could afford to pay my asking price. And guess who the lender was was ??? yep you guessed right it was FCC. The biggest reason supply managaed farmers are buying up farms like they are is because they are being backed by FCC, if we want to blame any one for high land values blame FCC they are are ones approving these crazy loans.
Name removed by editor at writer's request.
The land prices are high because there is more then just farmers buying it. They are out there competing against China who they say are buying land like there is no tomorrow ,construction companies that needs quarries and big ones at that,people retiring from the big cities and people just needing the land to expand its cities . So why is people coming down on farmers that want to have more land and doesn,t want to be boxed in by the not so farming people.
Maybe the people that want the young people to have land should buy some and give it to some chosen few so they can farm like the milk board.
You need to re-think your reasons here Stephen .
Many a hog farmer has paid that much or more for land in the last year . High cost of feed and low hog prices ?????????????
Francis
Wait a minute....Manitoba is seeking $130M in further loans, for hog farmers to dig the hole deeper...Big Sky, the second largest hog producer in Canada has gone into recievership, along with at least one other biggy, and you're claiming hog farmers are paying $1.85M for 130 workable acres?
You must have information I've never heard...like maybe these hog farmers have another source of income.
Dave Linton
Under PFO there would be no asking for hand outs and loans from the Gov. . I would think Big Sky had problems before now .
What you don't know any hog farmers who don't have another job ? Some work in town , others cashcrop and others might even own a business .
To correct a pervious post i seen today, the PFO is not against government loans or programs that are designed to give farmers a hand up and lead to long term financial stability, but we are not supportive of ongoing business risk management programs that just continue to provide on going hand outs that never seem to lead to any inprovement in long term financial stability at the farm level.
we need to find a better way forward and using the same thinking got us to this point will not move farming forward towards positive change unless we think out side the box.
Sean McGivern
PFO
Where the h--l is all the money the goverments is handing out to farmers and who are getting it. I,ve yet to see any and I came to conclusion that I never will. If you are running a big operation I guess its special and deserves a big cheque, or doing something special for a few years you can get a cheque and get out smiling. As far as the farmers being treated on a level playing field it will never happen and the rich will get richer.
So now you want it both ways . Get ride of the programs but allow the programs . Sucking and blowing !!
Would you be infavor of caps for programs ?
And instead of destroying SM you would think you would be infavor of seeking changes to it to allow more persons to share in a good system . But nope not you . Your attitude of not in my or any ones elses sandbox . Why you determined to wreck every thing and every one elses sand box is beyond comprehension .
Francis
Name one hog farmer, any hog farmer, who has purchased effectively bare land for over $12,000 per acre in the last year - for any you name (and I suggest you can't), I'll provide the names of at least a dozen dairy and poultry farmers who have. Either prove your claim, or stop antagonizing non-supply managed farmers by making this type of claim in the first place. I've got young farmers (and their parents) contacting me all the time to tell me supply management is the biggest reason this younger generation can't get into farming. What's more is that I don't know ANY non-supply managed farmers under the age of 30 within a five mile radius of my house because the supply management bullies have out-bid, out-muscled, and trampled all over, anyone who stands in their way. My reasons are clearly-thought out, accurate, valid, and supported at least ten-to-one by the people who contact me - and that's why I have no hesitation identifying myself when I post on this site.
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
You will have to try suck some one else into that game Stephen .
Further if you really want to make a difference you would see the error of your thinking of getting rid of SM . Why on earth would any one want to get rid of a profitable sector of agriculture ? You and the ( PFO) Pratical Fearmongerers of Ont. would have much more credability if you said there should be changes made to the SM sector that would limit size and concentration of the operations that would allow more and younger farmers to share in the profitability/stability of Supply Management . Tearing down that which works is totally stupid . Being an advocate for changes to the tax laws which allow the big to not pay their fair share of the taxes would be some thing I would think you would deem logical being an economist .
I have heard that SM farmers have bought farms just on the allotment of quota that they were given as an increase that they sold . Is SM perfect . No . But don't drag them down to the level of the hog farmer who voted years ago to not go with SM and a profit because they want to supply export markets which allows us here to be a dumping ground for other low price cuts which in turn lowers all of the prices . This country has increased exports by billions over the last 1 or 2 decades . What has that done for us other than put us first in the race to be the lowest cost producer which inturn has lead to tighter margins and more and greater losses . Some just never seem to learn a lesson .
Francis
Francis you have missed the whole the point, why should I as a non supply managed farmer have to be the one to find the answers for the supply managed farms. ???
They have offices over flowing with desk jockeys paid wages far beyond what i will ever make as a farmer. The supply managed boards need to find the answers required to cure the breasts they have created.
Supply managed farms have created their own problems, they should be the ones to figure out how to get young farmers in, they should have capped quota and they should have never allowed a values to be attached to quota, their greed and their lack of forward thinking has allowed this massive corporate concentration to happen in the feather industry and soon to be in the dairy industry as we see year over year decline in the number of dairy farmers.
every supply managed farmers would doesnt speak out for change is equally guilty, by being silent
Let's be honest with our self's Francis the Practical farmers of Ontario is actually the first farm organization that has enough courage to not cater to the wealthy and has decided to focus its efforts on actually working to benefit the family farms of this province. We are focused on helping the farmers who actually need support and who want support that does not come from government subsidies.
Two things to remember the PFO does not in any way support direct farm subsidies and we firmly believe there is a better way forward for the family farm and it dose not involve requiring family farms to buy a million dollars worth of quota before they can farm.
let us all remember what concentration does it wipes out our rural economy and it makes us very vulnerable, remember there are grocery stores in Ontario today with no beef in there display counters because of a healthy issue at an Alberta kill plant.
If you believe in rural living, strong family values and support farmers right to direct market their own food to consumers, then please check out our web site
Francis, what have you done for family farms in the past year, how have you been proactive in bring real positive change to the farming community ?
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A whole heck of a lot more than whine and cry and seek entertainment and blame some one else like some here on the Better Farming website . If this keeps up BF will be the next joke of Agriculture .
Look at when the prices of quota rose so high is when the rush of farmers from other countries came to Canada when they sold their farms back home for millions then came here to start up on a giant scale.
Like I said go to a country where there land is cheaper and there is no quota to buy and farm.
But I would like to milk cows and make money, but I don,t want to buy quota or work 7 days a week like our city cousins.
There is big money in milking cows , look at he price the farmers get south of the borders compare to the ones up here- not talking about the price the products is sold for in the stores.
If every one who said the want to milk cows and follow through there will be so much milk they wouldn,t be able to sell it and make anything, like a race to the bottom to see how low can you go.
One of the most popular fallacies among farmers continues to be the mistaken belief that you can't bring people up by bringing others down. Yet, economic principles, and economic history, have demonstrated time, and time again, right back to the lessons learned in England during the Corn Laws experience in the 1840s, that everyone benefits when protectionist benefits are taken away from the favoured few. In addition, you are clearly delusional to claim that a system forcing consumers to pay almost 38% more for milk than US consumers, is a sign that supply management "works". Furthermore, you are also clearly delusional when you claim that a system which has alienated an entire generation of non-supply managed farmers (and aspiring farmers) under the age of 40, is a sign that supply management "works". The undeniable fact of the matter is that neither consumers, nor young farmers, have any use for supply management, and while you can huff-and-puff, and delude yourself all you want about the benefits of supply management, it is not well-liked, and will not be missed, either by consumers or by the 90% of farmers who aren't in supply management.
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
Please, Mr. Thompson... if you are going to cite the revoking of the Corn Laws...... then tell a little more of the story.
Yes... protectionism was at the root but not as you allude to.
There was a small matter of who could control what commodities in that time frame. The Crown wanted to control trade but it was clear not ALL commodities were in the Crown's "trust".
"Corn" was defined as all grains. The Crown did not have sole authority of ALL grains in the British Colonies at that moment in time.....therefore they could not impose trade restrictions. The law had to be revoked.
It really comes down to "trusts" and where it lies.
joann vergeer
with your claims ??
Most people and especially young people do not want the debt and the 24/7 commitment of and the personal sacrifice of a dairy operation but they do want the perceived income . Most young people today do not understand what it took for their parents to get to where they are today . All they know is that they want the lifestyle that they are accustomed to and deserve to live better than they did when they were living at home . They are not willing to sacrifice any thing and think they deserve evry thing .
The consumer does not care or know what it takes to put safe milk on the shelf they just want it when they want it . You are the delusional one to think any different . I don't hear people from the city complaining about the price of milk . They for the most part have not got a clue about agriculture . Their food comes from the store . They know the price has increased because some one told them or they read in a paper or online that food prices were rising . News Flash !!! Every thing goes up in price at some time to the end user . Just like wages . Was it a price increase at the farm level or the price of fuel to get it to the store shelf ? I would think you would remember not long ago we had record low prices for farm products and rising fuel prices which put the price of food up to the consumer .
90 percent of farmers who are not in SM made a choice or business decision not to venture into SM . The choice was theirs . Some may even hate livestock which would be reason one not to raise livestock . I have had hog farmers tell me that manure really stinks when you are losing money but smells sweet when you are making money raising hogs . Shit stinks all the time .
Yoy can huff and puff all you want about how the consumer has no use for SM but the fact is that they keep buying SM products and the market keeps growing . End of story . Some even pay more for Organic SM and non SM organic products which makes even less sense . The consumer buys all kinds of things that are not well liked and would not be missed but the fact is they keep buying .
I can go to the USA and buy all kinds of things cheaper . Even Canadian made beer and whiskey . So your price rant about the cost of milk in Canada has many holes in it . Your argument is looking like a big old hunk of swiss cheese .
If SM is so Bad , Wicked and Wrong then why then do you not have OFA , CFFO and NFU fighting to get ride of it rather than being strong front line supporters of it ?
Francis
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seriously francis, some of the statments you make are so ridiculas to the point your commnents seem as if youve never talked to any one else to see the need for changes in agriculyure, your comments clearly show how out of touch with any segment of agriculture you are.
What type of farming is that you do Francis ????
I have a lots of friends who have lived on farms their whole life and wanted to be dairy farmers many of them worked for dairy farmers and put in long hard days and still wanted to have their own dairy farm, but in many cases their poor beef farming parents had to level with there kids and be honest with them there was just no way financially they could help their children come up with that kind of money to establish even the smallest allowable dairy farm.
there are even organizations like Farmstart in Guelph who are trying to get young people the skills they need to farm but there just are'nt any breaks for young people now a days.
At 33 if i had of started farming full time at 22 there is now way i could break into it now, in the past decade we have seen so many changes and such a rapid rise in farm sizes and a massive number of farmers selling out for huge dallars.
We currrently live in a time that is so drastically different then any time in history, the concept of just working hard and youll some day pay for a farm is old thinking and just wont work any more.
When i hear people saying if you dont like the rules of farming here in Canada just move out, really blows my mind, that this any ones reply to dealing with the major problems facing farming today.
som times when you open your mouth your brains show ......
Sean McGivern
PFO
I don't live on Mary-Janes ( hint hint wink wink ) if that is what you are asking !!
Sorry to have hit the nerve of truth Sean but if you want to milk cows in this country you have to have quota . Other wise you need to milk sheep or goats or move to some where that does not have quota .
The good lord gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason . And if your mouth is running you are not listening !!
Also I think your spelling leaves a little to be desired as there are loads of spelling mistakes in this and other replies from you . "Som" I think should be some ?
Francis
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so sick of reading Stephen Thompsons replies on everything to do with supply management, what? you want everyone to lose money, scream at the government to bail us out over and over again??? god sakes at least the dairy and poultry is making some kind of return for people that are hard working and willing to take the risk and move forward. You think its any different in the corporate world?? no one cares about anyone else as long as the share holders are making money so why not a farmer?? why don t you find something else to whine about Stephen its getting old, go pick on the health system and cry foul and have fun with that subject.....
But I farm and can,t buy land what to do. Why would anyone give their land away for next too nothing and the ones who buy it sell it down the road and make a fotune, just read the letter where they bought it in 2006 and sold it 6 years later for double the price. I guess if you whine enough you will find some sucker to sell you their land for next too nothing so you can have a great retirement. I don,t like reading letters where they think if you make good money farming and your money should go down to the ones that are losing it so you are looking for goverment hand outs.
Every farmer has siad the price they paid for land was too much the day they bought it .
Francis
Stephen give your head a shake, this is 2012 your whining again about SM and the reasons why young farmers cannot enter the business, do you really think that getting rid of supply management will fix that and ethanol, if your such a knowlegeable farmer as you suggest then i say you ve lost touch with reality. The facts are with machinery costs, banking costs, input costs the dream of farming for ANYONE is daunting at the least and cannot be a reality for most and do you think that the machinery or input suppliers care about anything other than the money they make or how they make it?? Come on this is modern farming reality 101, money is king, family values and all the other stuff you sputer about is all fine and dandy in the rosy picture your living in the but the real world is about money, greed etc....so if the monsanto s, maple leafs, maple lodges etc of the world are bent and determined to make money thats just the way it is, you cant spend your life crying about poor unfair circumstances in farming, it is the way it is and if some smart people can figure out a way to make money so be it good for them, they had the courage and forward thinking to do it and hard work....your crying and whining is the exact same thing as a young child crying and whining that he has a red lollipop when all the others have green ones because of some unfair advantage they have....get over it if your so smart as a farmer why are you not in supply management it certainly has proven to make money over the years if as you claim its only the big bad SM farmers making your life miserable? why not Stephen and don t even try to tell me its impossible cause i know first hand it is not.....its sad to read constantly about farmers against other farmers for making money,
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It sure is funny how people who dont support the current supply management system on these posts always man up and give their names as they sign off on their posts, but rarely and i mean rarely, do any of the pro supply management people ever dare to give their names in their posts, maybe its the office jockeys at the supply management boards posting here and not actually farmers ???
Sean McGivern
PFO
Is the fact that you are on here spouting off thinking your name means some thing . It likely means keep far far away to many . Stooping as low as to calling SM office employees "office jockeys" about a low as I need ever hear from you to never want to ever consider joining your group . It is some thing that is just not done and should never be condoned by any one . It is in my books low and uncalled for .
Further ..... you seem to have forgotten that you took your bat and ball and went home after you could not get "your way" at the NFU . Even then you did not have the decency to just go home . No you had to kick all of the sand out of the sand box and smash the side boards too because if you weren't going to play in their sand box then neither should they have one to play in . Some things are done behind closed doors and some out in the open . Needless to say you have no clue as to when which one applies .
Francis
Francis you have zero facts correct about why I and 3 other directors resigned from the NFU board, I wasn't some lone disgruntle person, 4 of us NFUO directors could no longer stand by watching the kinds of things happen that were, i can assure we tried many times to get the other board members to follow the Farm business registration and fund act, before we took the NFU to the tribunal, we actually even got a farm lawyer to write a letter stating the duties of a director yet these other directors chose to not want to come in to compliance with the law of the land that governs farm organiztions. so before you go pipping off about some thing you seem to have zero acurrate infromation on you might want to first get your facts straight. O r maybe you should been at the tribunal hearing to hear first hand your self, it was an open public event after all.
Before long the OMAFRA TRIBUNAL will deliver their decession and it be there for every one to see all the facts and i will have you know the NFUO has already made some changes to correct many of the issues that they had chose not to before being called before the tribunal.
its shame it took the tribunal to make them realize they were above the law.
Sean McGivern
I constantly read comments on this website lamenting the lack of results from existing boards...indeed, I've often lamented the fact they seem to spend too much time defending their own turf and very little time looking forward.
Every now and then (and I've seen this before) along comes some fresh blood that points out the obvious problems and offers solutions.
The rest of us either are too disgusted to take any action, are too uninformed to realize the problem or are part of the problem.
So, what happens? They "shoot the messenger". That's the easy way out, but nothing gets solved and the problems get even bigger.
I can do nothing but applaud Sean McGivern and admire his tenacity.
Don't let the "naysayer's" drown you out Sean, you are in the right and have lot's of support.
Dave Linton
As usual McGivern your saying what exactly???? that a name is what? beneficial to you somehow? WHAT dirfference does it make to you wether a name is attached to a reply or not? what a useless comment unless you have alterior motives to do harm to the person named? is that it? NO the issue is you,PFO and Thompson rant and rave about the unfairness of issues in agriculture and I respond with unfairness is everywhere in business and affects everyone in life at one point or another and depending whom you talk to they will be affected however, get it can you follow that? Is it fair that the EMD workers in London lost their jobs to the US even though CAT was making millions of clear money NO, is it fair that I wait in a hospital room for hours on end to see a doctor NO, is it fair that my cousins are enjoying the biggest harvest ever cause they had rain and I did not NO, is it fair that tomato growers have always made huge money along with sugar beets and and and, you see nothing is fair but its the people that decide to stop complaining and whining about what others have and move on and take risks and maybe lose it all or maybe make it big and YOU SIR have a problem with that??? not saying you don t work hard but don t bash the people that do and do well at it, its not unfair its the system we developed and IT WORKS. Go make your own and I will applaud you all the way. You want a name to this ok no problem my name is
FARMER
is this a serious reply Sean McGivern gives in this forum to Man Up as he puts it? I really do not see why a name to an opinion is meaningfull, or is it you have no reply other than this dribble? The supply managed farm industry is hard working and good people just like most in the farm community but I can see here and by reading more of his other articles this man is extremely jealous of others and merely wants to be able to take part in a system without paying for it like the other hard working dairy or poultry farmers. Shame on you McGivern this is beneath you
hard working farmer not a desk jockey wrote this
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