Ontario’s Small Business Property Subclass: Considerations for Municipalities

One of the impacts of encouraging redevelopment and intensification in the City of Toronto is that it drives up the price of commercial properties in those designated areas, resulting in small businesses seeing significant increases in their property taxes.

This results because commercial properties in those areas have seen an increase in their property assessments that have been greater than the average for other commercial properties in Toronto. When a property’s value increases more than the average for other similar properties, it can often result in higher property taxes.

These property taxes are then passed onto small business tenants within these buildings, often threatening the financial sustainability of those businesses.

To help address this challenge, Chris and his team at MPAC worked with the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas (TABIA) and the City of Toronto to identify and advocate for policy approaches that could support small businesses.

The result was that the Province of Ontario announced the creation of a new Small Business Property Tax Subclass that municipalities could use to mitigate these increases. To help support municipalities and their implementation of the new property tax tool, Chris and his team worked with TABIA and other municipal stakeholders to create the Ontario Small Business Property Subclass Report.

Municipal Connect Redevelopment

Municipal Connect is the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation’s (MPAC) web platform that delivers data and assessment insights to Ontario’s 444 municipalities. Municipal staff use the platform daily, and it is critical to fulfilling their daily work to support residents and businesses.

After joining MPAC, Chris reviewed the platform and looked to redevelop it based on feedback from municipalities. The platform had become dated, its user interface and experience needed to be updated, new tools and functionality were being demanded, and a need to upgrade its security posture.

Working with MPAC’s public sector leading IT staff and his MPAC team, Chris initiated the redevelopment of Municipal Connect. The project required undertaking in-depth stakeholder consultation throughout the process, but thanks to the strong collaboration, deep technical skill, and clear business goals, the team redeveloped and launched the platform within six months, resulting in significant annual operating savings.

MPAC Municipal Engagement Strategy

The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) supports Ontario’s 444 municipalities with their property assessment needs every year.

 This includes providing insight and tools to support the management of their property assessment base, adding new assessment and property tax revenues by processing new development and renovations, and providing data that supports broader municipal planning and operational needs.

 To provide greater strategic insight and direction to this work, Chris worked with his team to develop MPAC’s first municipal engagement strategy, including creating a supporting communication strategy and technology strategy that included developing MPAC’s first client relationship management system.