OPSEU supports probe of Municipal Property Assessment Corp.

Operations by secretive MPAC executives and board of directors come under scrutiny by Ontario Ombudsman Ottawa – The Ontario Public service Employees Union (OPSEU/NUPGE) is welcoming news that the provincial ombudsman will investigate how the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) sets assessments that affect taxes on some 4.4 million properties across the province. OPSEU represents employees who work for MPAC.

Carl Isenburg is president of MPAC, and Debbie Zimmerman is chair of the board of directors.

The investigation was announced Monday by ombudsman Andre Marin. He said his office, which normally gets about 50 assessment complaints a year, has received 75 in the past week alone.

The probe will examine the criteria MPAC uses to makes assessments and look at whether the corporation pays any serious attention to decisions made by the province's appeal process.

"There exists, on the face of it, a strong case that there is a lack of transparency in the assessment process and that warrants further investigation," Marin said. "To the property owners who have come to us, the property assessment process is aloof, mysterious and cloaked in secrecy."

OPSEU anxious to help

The ombudsman has no power to force changes in provincial rules and regulations. However, he can exert political pressure by making recommendations for improvements.

“Despite the cheerful proclamations of MPAC management, many front-line staff are deeply concerned about the quality of the product in this year’s assessment,” says OPSEU president Leah Casselman. “Our members look forward to working with Mr. Marin in any way we can.”

Employee concerns began more than four years ago, when the former Conservative government of Mike Harris and Ernie Eves was in power. At the time MPAC forced the majority of staff to apply for new jobs in a re-organized corporation.

MPAC, which now describes itself as a non-profit corporation, is run by a executive committee, headed by president Carl Isenburg, and a board of directors, led by Debbie Zimmerman. Both are appointees of the current Liberal government of Premier Dalton McGuinty.

Isenburg, in his 2004 annual report, boasts that MPAC added $24 billion in assessment to Ontario properties in 2004. He has also claimed that there is little about assessment that he does not know.

The increase was the latest in a series of whopping jumps in assessments that now have taxpayers across the province fuming. Some are reporting increases of more than 100% in the past year or two, and increases of 25% to 50% are common.

A new round of assessment notices has just come out in Ontario and many taxpayers are reporting another massive increase in their property assessments.

Defeated Liberal candidate

Zimmerman is a municipal councillor who ran and lost for the federal Liberals in a Niagara riding in 2004. She is also chief executive officer of the Grape Growers of Ontario.

OPSEU says the MPAC re-organization launched by the Tories and continued by the Liberals had several immediate effects:

“Computer models are only as good as the information that’s fed into them,” says Casselman. “The problems we’re seeing at MPAC now all spring from the loss of on-the-ground knowledge,” she said. “At a time when customers everywhere want made-to-measure service, MPAC is offering a one-size-fits-all approach.”

In a recent MPAC survey, employees were asked whether, if given the option, they would invest money in MPAC. Only four per cent were eager to do so.

“We hope Mr. Marin’s investigation will be the dawn of a new day for property assessment in Ontario,” she says.

Web posted by NUPGE: 18 October 2005

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