For Immediate Release
January 28, 2005

Woodlot owners should be concerned with changes to MFTIP

Delhi – Haldimand-Norfolk-Brant MPP Toby Barrett encourages the current Ontario Liberals to reinstate the property tax benefits of the Managed Forest Tax Incentive Program (MFTIP).

While at the Norfolk Woodlot Owners Association Annual General Meeting last evening, MPP Barrett indicated to landowners that Ontario’s Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) has targeted MFTIP.

“In 2003, MPAC decided that it would change assessments for managed forests, on current use rather than at the farmland rate,” Barrett said. “And they did this without notifying woodlot owners.”

Since 1998, more than 10,000 Ontario landowners have received a 75 per cent reduction in property taxes for woodlots on their lands that they agree to conserve. But the 2003 tax change by MPAC has resulted in assessments on forests being hiked an average of 45 per cent and the highest increase has been seen in Southern Ontario, according to the Timmins Daily Press.

“Higher property tax rates eliminate the incentive for any landowner to plant trees or maintain forests,” Barrett said. “In my opinion, this government is forgetting some of the benefits of the program and that is to protect and enhance our natural environment.”

The Liberal government has agreed to develop a committee of landowners to develop another approach; however, many woodlot owners feel the old method worked well and should be reinstated.

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For more information please contact MPP Toby Barrett at: 519-428-0446, 905-765-8413 or 1-800-903-8629