Sault Ste. Marie to implement vacant home tax
The City of Sault Ste. Marie will soon be charging owners of vacant properties a special tax.
City council approved a proposal from administration to implement a vacant home tax as a means of dealing with an increase in empty properties and out-of-town investors buying properties and leaving them vacant.
Peter Tonazzo, director of planning, said the tax would apply to structures that have been empty for a long time and showing obvious signs of neglect.
“Really what we’re trying to target is these persistently vacant homes that have been unkempt, unmaintained, and quite frankly are having a lot of negative impacts around their neighbourhoods,” said Tonazzo.
Once the tax is in place, he said it will not be up to city staff to patrol neighbourhoods in search of vacant properties.
“We’re looking at more of a complaint-based program because we feel that’s the only feasible way for us to do it,” he said.
“We’ve got 34,000 households, dwelling units, there’s no way that we can go out and have all of those tell us whether they’re vacant or not.”
City council voted unanimously in favour of implementing the tax. One downtown councillor said she is confident that she and other councillors will be able to alert staff to vacant properties.
“All of us as city councillors, we know our wards, we know our neighbourhoods,” said Lisa Vezeau-Allen.
“I think we can definitely compile a list without putting the onus on the bylaw officer to make this move forward. So, I already have four or five addresses that I know that once this is ongoing that we can definitely address.”
o Download our app to get local alerts on your device
o Get the latest local updates right to your inbox
City staff have yet to determine what percentage of the assessed value of the property will be taxed, along with some other factors that still need to be worked out.
However, there will be some exemptions to the vacant home tax covering ‘snowbirds’ and those receiving extensive, out-of-town medical treatments.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Trump confronts repeated boos during raucous Libertarian convention speech
Donald Trump was booed repeatedly while addressing Saturday night’s Libertarian Party National Convention.
Grayson Murray, two-time PGA Tour winner, dead at 30
Two-time PGA Tour winner Grayson Murray died Saturday morning at age 30, one day after he withdrew from the Charles Schwab Cup Challenge at Colonial.
Family of toddler found dead at small-town Ont. daycare no closer to answers after year of investigation
A year has passed since two-year-old Vienna Irwin was found on the property of a home-based daycare in small-town Ontario, but her family says they are no closer to answers of what happened that day.
More seniors are using homeless shelters. Here's why, according to experts
One of the country’s homeless shelters has seen an uptick in the number of people through its doors, including more older adults over 50.
The death toll in Kharkiv attack rises to 14 as Zelenskyy warns of Russian troop movements
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Sunday that Russia is preparing to intensify its offensive along Ukraine's northern border, as the death toll rose to 14 in an aerial bomb attack on a large construction supplies store in the city of Kharkiv.
Norway hands over papers for diplomatic recognition to the Palestinian prime minister
Norway on Sunday handed over diplomatic papers to the Palestinian prime minister in the latest step toward recognizing a Palestinian state, a largely symbolic move that has infuriated Israel.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels freed over 100 war prisoners, the Red Cross says
The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen on Sunday released more than 100 war prisoners linked to the country’s long-running conflict, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
Man or machine? Toronto company finds a way to determine how real audio clips are
The Toronto-based research arm of life sciences technology firm Klick Health has found a way to analyze voices in a manner that’s so granular, it can tell whether it's a person or an artificial intelligence-powered machine.
No sign Canada has a plan to reach NATO defence spending target: U.S. NATO ambassador
The U.S. ambassador to NATO says she has seen no indication that Canada has a plan to reach the NATO spending target of two per cent of GDP on defence.