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www.gregmonforton.com Volume 1, Issue 50
Weekend Weather Thursday
H -6º L -10º
Friday
H -6º L -10º
Saturday
H 1º L -7º
Sunday
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As reported from Environment Canada www.weatheroffice.gc.ca Harrow AAFC
The new MAX FM hits Leamington airwaves Page 14
Piecing together time... Page 20
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
www.southpointsun.ca
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Why did we get $1.5M? Special Feature to the Sun By Bill Chaplin Just before Christmas both our Mayor John Paterson and our MPP Pat Hoy announced that Leamington was getting $1,550,900 from the Province. Notwithstanding the adage not to look a gift horse in the mouth, I really wondered why. Apparently it was from something called OMPF funding. I wondered what that was, too. Let me tell you what it’s all about. OMPF stands for the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund. The Province describes it as,”The OMPF, which replaced the Community Reinvestment Fund (CRF) in 2005, is the province’s main transfer payment to municipalities. The OMPF assists municipalities with their social program costs, includes equalization measures, addresses challenges faced by northern and rural communities, and responds to policing costs in rural communities.” Just as the Federal Government makes transfer payments to provinces to help them afford federally mandated programs, the Ontario government makes transfer payments to municipalities to help the ratepayers afford the cost of provincially-imposed standards for certain services. The first component of the payment is for ‘Assessment Equalization’. Based on our Financial Information Return, Leamington’s households have an average assessed value of $204,679 (and there are 10,815 households). The province provides a $42 subsidy for every $10,000 our assessment is
$600,000 fire at Highline Mushroom farm
Leamington firefighters responded to an early morning blaze at the Highline Mushroom farm on Mersea Road 5 near the intersection of Highway 77. Twenty-five firefighters arrived at 6 a.m. to the blaze that kept them there for more than five hours. The OPP and fire department had Mersea Road 5 blocked off. The fire was believed to have originated in a second floor lunch room and spread to the mushroom growing area. Approximately 1/3 of the building was lost. Cause of the fire is undetermined. (SUN Photo)
below $225,000 per household. Since we are $20,321 (below the threshold level) x 10,815 = $219,771,615 / $10,000 x $42 = $923,040. So the province gives us $923,100. The second part of the total comes from the reduced tax paid on farms and managed forest properties. The province has a sliding scale of subsidy based on how great a portion of local taxes come from these two categories of property. In Leamington’s case, it is enough to qualify for a grant of $149,500. If farm taxes comprised 5% or less of our tax base, we’d get nothing; if the taxes from farms were 20% or more we would get a grant equal to 300% of those taxes. Obviously, we’re somewhere in the middle
of those two extremes. That brings us up to $1,072,600. The next part of the Provincial Grant depends on how ‘rural’ we are. Weird, huh? Using the 2006 census, the Province calculates what proportion of the population lives in an urban environment and what proportion is rural. Think you know what you are? You may be wrong, because the distinction appears to be based upon a population density of above or below 400 per square kilometres producing a total population of 1000, or association with a population centre that has a population of 10,000 or more. Since no normal human can calculate the answer, we just accept the Province’s claim that we are 30.5% rural. (Kingsville is apparently 47.0%
rural, while Lakeshore is 40.1% rural.) At this level we qualify for a grant of about $17.21 per household. $17.21 x 10,815 households = $186,126. The province slipped us $186,200. So far we’re up to $1,258,800. The final component of the OMPF grant is for policing costs. Below a cost of $150 per household, every municipality is on its own. Between $150 and $750, one level of subsidy is paid based on the rural character of the municipality, and above $750 a significantly higher level is paid. Since our policing costs worked out to around $639 in 2010, and we are “30.5% rural, we qualified for a subsidy of about $27.00 per household, or $292,100. And that’s the $1,550,900
OMPF grant. That’s a provincial grant of $143.40 per household, which is a pretty nice Christmas present no matter how you look at it. How do we compare to our neighbours? Kingsville qualified for $955,600 – about $115.41 per household; Lakeshore got $906,200 – about $69.70 per household. (Both have an average assessment well above the provincial threshold of $225,000.) The one anomaly is the Town of Essex, which the Province thinks is 100% rural. As a consequence of that status, and their low average assessed value of only $180,800 they received $5,213,280, or about $594.11 per household.
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