Al MacFarlane received a tax return due to poor road service for his property on Commercial Road. (file photo/meadowlakeNOW Staff)

By Nikita Ganovicheff

Tax Return

Council grants partial tax return to M.L. property owner after refusing abatement

Aug 27, 2019 | 12:38 PM

City council voted 5-1 in favour of a partial tax return to a Meadow Lake property owner on the basis that council felt the city did not provide proper services due to a misclassification of the road where the property is located.

Al MacFarlane, owner of Meadow Lake Properties, received a partial tax refund of just over $980 for his property on 1 Commercial Road. He said the road was not receiving proper services and had not been grated or dust proofed.

“I don’t want to throw daggers at the Public Works; those guys are busy all the time and I know they’ve got places to go but if I’m not getting service then I don’t know why I should pay for it,” MacFarlane said.

Members of the Public Works Department believed the road to be a private road and not a municipal road. The department said it has been corrected and the road will be included in the maintenance schedule going forward.

MacFarlane originally requested for a return of over $7,000 in municipal taxes however it was on the basis of his property assessment value. Council denied the request and said MacFarlane would have needed to make the request when his property was reassessed.

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Council brought up a similar request when they refused a late abatement request from the Meadow Lake Outreach Ministries in 2017. The Outreach Ministries filed a successful abatement the next year during the proper period.

Instead council granted the return based on the base tax amount which is tied to core services.

Councillor Curtis Paylor was the only one to oppose on the account that it may set a precedent for other property owners who do not appeal during the assessment period.

“For us to cherrypick one property out of many sets a very dangerous precedence. Based on that I would love to give Al a break but I can’t see us going against our own policy and procedures,” Paylor said.

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nikita.ganovicheff@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @Nikitaganov