Province quashes hopes for retroactive bunkhouse payments

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

by SUSAN MANN

Ontario’s move to change the property tax classification for temporary worker bunkhouses to the farm class isn’t retroactive, says finance ministry spokesman Kent Williams.

Williams says in an email that making the “regulatory amendment prospective rather than retroactive provides stability for municipalities and clarity for property owners and the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation.”

Norfolk-area farmer Marshall Schuyler wants the change to be made retroactive.

Schuyler recently built a new bunkhouse and it was assessed as residential while the other four bunkhouses on his property were assessed as farm.

Nevertheless, he says he’s really pleased the decision to change the classification for bunkhouses “wasn’t one of these things that went on for five year, ten years.”

Schuyler says he’s now waiting to see what is in the regulations. “I’m 99 per cent sure the regulations will accomplish what the press release says. But until you see the actual regulations, you don’t know.”

The change is effective Jan. 1 and applies to all bunkhouses that meet the eligibility criteria. The farm classification will apply to dwellings that are used for on-farm seasonal or temporary workers, situated on land that has been assessed as farmland and included in the farm property class and that aren’t occupied year round, Williams writes in the email.

The change means farmers with residences that house temporary workers will pay the farm property tax rate, which is 75 per cent lower than the residential rate.

The finance ministry estimates farmers could save $200 to $300 a year based on the average assessment for a bunkhouse. The amount of taxes saved by a farmer could vary greatly depending on the number of bunkhouses on the property and their assessed value. BF