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
Signs of Alzheimer’s were everywhere. Then his brain improved
Blood biomarkers of telltale signs of early Alzheimer’s disease in the brain of his patient, 55-year-old entrepreneur Simon Nicholls, had all but disappeared in a mere 14 months.
Flammable kids' sleepwear, salmonella-contaminated chips: Here are the recalls of this week
Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued recalls for various items this week, including kids' bassinets, chips, and stoves. Here's what to watch out for.
Lyon-bound Air Canada Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner from Montreal turns back midflight due to pressurization alert
Passengers heading from Montreal to Lyon, France on Friday were forced to return home and depart the next day after a pressurization indication was detected in flight.
U.S. ambassador 'not aware' of any plans for Trudeau-Trump meeting
Canada's Ambassador to the United States says she's 'not aware' of any plans for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to meet with former U.S. president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump before the November American election.
Sentencing trial set to begin for Florida man who executed 5 women at a bank in 2019
Zephen Xaver walked into a central Florida bank in 2019, fatally shot five women and then called police to tell them what he did. Now 12 jurors will decide whether the 27-year-old former prison guard trainee is sentenced to death or life without parole.
'How do you get hypothermia in a prison?' Records show hospitalizations among Virginia inmates
The Virginia State Police investigator seemed puzzled about what the inmate was describing: "unbearable" conditions at a prison so cold that toilet water would freeze over and inmates were repeatedly treated for hypothermia.
The secret Italian lakes that most tourists don't know about
Italy has dozens of secret smaller lakes that boast superb scenery, unknown to mass tourism, where locals get together on day trips and enjoy picnics.
What we've learned so far in the Trump hush money trial and what to watch for as it wraps up
Testimony in the hush money trial of Donald Trump is set to conclude in the coming days, putting the landmark case on track for jury deliberations that will determine whether it ends in a mistrial, an acquittal — or the first-ever felony conviction of a former American president.
Canadian immigration asks medical worker fleeing Gaza if he treated Hamas fighters
Lawyers are questioning Canada’s approach to screening visa applications for people in Gaza with extended family in Canada after one applicant, a medical worker, was asked whether he had treated members of Hamas.