Board of Directors - 2006
President/Secretary: Nancy Rowe R.N.
Vice President : Bonny Griffiths
Treasurer: Wendy Ward-Price
Past President: Gary Hooper
Members at Large
Lee Bertouche
Maggie Durnford
Carolyn Moerschner
Maggie Durnford

Advisors
Todd W Johnson
John R. Saul
Blake Wallace

CCRA

COLLINGWOOD CONDOMINIUM RATEPAYERS ASSOCIATION

NEWS LETTER VOL. 2 ISSUE 2 APRIL, 2005

By Nancy Rowe
CCRA President/Secretary

MISSION: To promote a fair property tax and taxation system for condominium owners in Collingwood.

GOALS: To obtain fair property taxation for condominiums in Collingwood.
To obtain rebates from the municipality by resolving issues surrounding municipal services rendered to condominium owners.
To ensure representation of condominium corporations by all levels of government but in particular, municipal and county.
To address any concerns of condominium owners.

OBJECTIVES:
1. In lieu of lowering taxes for condominiums, request the Town of Collingwood do the following:
• Provide more services to condominium corporations including, but not limited to, fire hydrant inspection and maintenance, sewer maintenance, garbage removal, bus service, etc.
OR
• Provide condominium corporations with rebates or grants whichever is appropriate
AND
• Demonstrate fairness in services and the cost of services provided by the municipality as compared with single family dwellings, notwithstanding the “Private Property” policy of the Town of Collingwood.

• Ensure that the day to day work of the local government includes representation of condominiums in Collingwood at the municipal and county levels.

2. Support a fiduciary and fiscally responsible municipal government through an active interest and participation in local politics, and through education

3. Attempt to change our condominium status to differentiate condominiums from single family dwellings with regard to municipal services and property taxation at the Provincial level.
Revised March, 2006.



The spring is finally here! Everything is coming back to life but the CCRA worked diligently throughout the cold and dark and had a very productive winter.
When the Property Tax was calculated by MPAC in the fall, and it was on the Toronto news night after night, The CCRA made a formal complaint to the Ontario Ombudsman. In the past couple of weeks you’ve been hearing about the ruthless report made by the Ombudsman regarding MPAC’s practices and lack of transparency. We received, as a complainant, the 95 page document compiled by the Ombudsman and it makes for very interesting reading. If at any time you have appealed a decision made by MPAC by the appeals process, you should know that, up until now, the reduction you may have won only lasted until the next assessment year. It should change now, but there is nothing official yet. So keep an eye out and re-apply to the appeals process to keep the reductions you have gained over time. It’s meant to be continual. This gives the impression that the appeals board has no clout and is not valued by MPAC. This was one of many important findings in the report.
We have started our interviewing process of candidates for the municipal election coming up on 13 November, 2006. By next week we will have interviewed 4 candidates. Please keep in mind that if you own property, you are entitled to vote in municipal elections even if you don’t live here full time. The voting is made so easy for out of town condo owners by providing mail-in ballots. That’s right. You don’t need to drive to Collingwood to vote. But this year it is so important to have all the condominium owners voting for candidates who support the goals and objectives of the CCRA who also have integrity, openness, honesty, stewardship of Collingwood and her assets, and a desire to serve the people. We intend to keep you up to date on who is willing to be interviewed by the CCRA and who isn’t, new candidates and how they measure up. As always, we ask if you would consider running for a position on council, or nominating someone you know who would be a great candidate for the municipal election as a council member. Please let us know. We believe that the town of Collingwood needs some new blood and fresh ideas for the future for our town, in Town Council.
We desperately need your email addresses so we can email you folks all this great information, incurring little cost to us or your corporations. We will be holding a special meeting on 14 October, 2006 to introduce you to the best candidates. The meeting will be held at Leisure Time, at 2:00 PM Saturday. You can meet them and ask them questions and see for yourselves why they are good candidates for us condo owners and the Town of Collingwood. Since we’re doing all this, we want to keep you all up to date so please send your email addresses directly to me at: ncrowe1@sympatico.ca. If you have already mailed in your email addresses in January, we already have them downloaded and thank you very much.
Mayor Geddes called us up and asked to have a meeting with the CCRA Executive and Directors. This meeting was held on Monday, 13 March, 06 at Town Hall with the Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Sandra Cooper, Ed Houghton, Gord Norris, Finance Officer, Marjorie Leonard, and Don Green. The agenda was “garbage”. As alluded to in the last news letter, there is no standard fee schedule for the price of garbage collection and some condo corps are paying up to 135% increases over last year. Single family dwellings have a flat rate removed from their property taxes paid to the town and that covers the full cost of collecting garbage, collecting recycling, tipping fees and dumping fees. Condos on the other hand pay any where from a couple of dollars more per person per month up to $10.00 more. The fees charged by Mid Ontario Disposal don’t appear to be related to difficulty of collection or any other criteria to explain the extra costs. The meeting appeared to go well and we were going to be contacted by this working group in “a couple” of weeks. They do now seem to understand what our issues are surrounding garbage collection, especially now that the election is approaching. We are expecting a rebate for garbage. Not every condominium corp. will receive a large rebate but some others will. Once the fees have been calculated for each condo corp. per person per month we’ll have a better idea of who will get a rebate. The rebates will go to your corporation. There is also a discrepancy concerning ownership of bins. Mid Ontario Disposal has told the Town that they own all the bins at the condominiums. We know this not to be true in all cases so all you presidents out there, check with your property management companies to verify that you do or don’t own your own bins. Unfortunately, Mid Ontario has a 5 year contract with the County for garbage pick up. To date, we have not heard back from council or the mayor.
At the same meeting, we also discussed bus service in the west end and Ed Houghton has assured us that the gas tax rebate that we’ve heard so much about will be transferred from the government to the municipality and will be put toward accessible transportation. Rider-ship of the bus system at the present time is estimated at 7 people per hour per bus. For the past few years, we’ve been instructed to ask for a trial bus service in our community. That was the “proper procedure” according to Sandra Cooper last year in her letter to us. We have that in writing. It now appears that we in the west end could not have asked for a trial bus service because there was no bus in the west end. On 22 March, 06, there was a press release in the Enterprise Bulletin titled: Town Council Considers Overhaul of Bus Routes. The company which contracts out to the town for bus service, currently runs 2 bus routes, but that may no longer be adequate, says Ed Houghton. He said he would like to see 3 routes that would include 150 designated stops. Mr. Houghton also stated that he now has 40,000 riders per year and would like to see it go up to 80,000. Ed Houghton’s proposal for a revised bus plan is replacing the smaller buses with more reliable larger buses at a cost of $200,000. each to also facilitate any disabled rider. Surprisingly, the small buses have a life span of 5 to 7 years. Hopefully now we are all on the same page. It is only now that we have the Town Council agreeing with us that services to condominiums have been unfair. We still have no assurances that west end bus service will become a reality even after a so called overhaul of the current system. It has taken perseverance and an election to get the town officials to acknowledge us.
Please be aware that the CCRA will be sending notices, placing newspaper advertisements, emails and one more newsletter before the municipal election in November. Keep your eyes and ears open about candidates and election platforms. We’ll tell you what we think and then vote according to your convictions. But please be involved and vote. We can’t change anything if we don’t participate. Our legal advisor tells us that a couple hundred votes can get someone favourable elected. During the last election Rick Lloyd won his position on council with 4,433 votes. Chris Carrier won with 3,819 votes, Norm Sandberg won with 3,482 votes, Kathy Jeffery won with 3,333 votes, Mike Edwards won with 3,293 votes, Joe Guardhouse won with 3,224 votes, Ian Chadwick won with 3,159 votes, Sonny Foley had 3,007 votes, Greta Gill had 2,336 votes and replaced Joe Guardhouse after his resignation. If we vote strategically as a body of like-minded voters, we can add support to good honest candidates, with sound business sense, integrity, and elect a council which operates with responsibility, transparency, with strong moral ethics, and who will help condominiums get a fair break. Here are some important voting strategies to ensure a good result in the election. If you only like three candidates, just vote for those three. If you only like one candidate, just vote for one candidate. There is no need to vote for the whole council if they aren’t good candidates. In this way, only the most favourable candidates will be elected. When we hold our meeting in the fall concerning candidates and voting, we remind any members attending, to bring your mail-in vote ballots, fill them in after the meeting if you wish and then mail the ballot. That way, it won’t get lost, you won’t forget, and you’ll contribute to getting a solid mayor and council for Collingwood. Did you know that your membership with the CCRA adds up to approximately 4,800 votes? We have power to make a positive change in the integrity and competence of the municipal government. There won’t be another election for five more years so we need to make this one count.
Last week we heard from Jim Wilson MPP Simcoe-Grey, that the Ministry of Finance will indeed meet with the CCRA in Toronto to address the issue of property taxation and condominium classification of “single family dwelling” which does not describe condo owners adequately. It is at the provincial level that changes must be made regarding property taxation. It reminds me of the old movie, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. We hope to represent you all well. The date has not been set but we will keep you informed via email.

From all of us at CCRA, Best Wishes to all of you. Enjoy your spring and summer and you will be hearing from us again soon.

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COLLINGWOOD CONDOMINIUM RATEPAYERS ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER