CORNWALL – Owners of rental property may soon get a benefit for having affordable rents – lower property taxes. SDG Counties adopted a new Affordable Rental Housing subclass at their September 15 meeting.
The new subclass targets multi-residential properties where the rent is deemed “affordable” and will be available for 2026 through new provincial regulations to support more affordable rental units.
Once implemented, the Counties can adopt up to a 35 per cent reduction in property taxes for affordable rental properties, should those properties meet the criteria. The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation will classify eligible units starting in the 2026 taxation year.
A lower tax rate was not set at the council meeting. During the December budget deliberations, council may choose to assign a discounted tax rate for the subclass as an incentive to encourage more rentals in the Counties. SDG is under no obligation to adopt a lower rate and can keep the subclass at the same tax rate as residential. Nearly three-quarters of Counties’ tax revenue comes from residential property owners, so any discounts for multi-residential will come at the cost to residential taxpayers, and impact budget revenue.
Already critical of provincial downloading to municipalities, Councillor Tony Fraser (North Dundas) spoke against adopting the change.
“I understand the challenges we face but this is, to me, another challenge that the province is downloading on us, downloading on to our taxpayers, to look after things that should be looked after by the province,” Fraser told council. “I know there are views that the lower tier [municipalities] should look after some of this, but it bothers me to no end.”
He continued that municipal taxpayers are already burdened by things Fraser said the province did not want to do.
“This is one more thing that the province seems to not want to do to support affordable housing,” Fraser said adding that municipalities already have options to support housing such as removing development charges.
“These are opportunities that we already have locally to do that affects the taxpayers but not in such a pointed way.”
Despite Fraser’s opposition, council was generally supportive of adopting the new subclass.
“I think this is another signal that we can send that we are committed to address the housing crisis within our area,” said Alternate Councillor Stephanie Jaworski (South Glengarry). “If not that many properties qualify at this time, it is really a low risk option.”
Councillor Steve Densham (North Stormont) said that low income housing has lower rental revenue but face many of the same expenses as higher-priced rentals.
“The costs generally are not lower, and sometimes they’re higher; especially when some of the not-for-profit housing are delivering additional services like social services,” he said.
Councillor Jamie MacDonald (North Glengarry) was supportive of the move, but also concerned about the impact to municipal budgets. Tax classes set by Counties are followed by the six lower-tier municipalities within SDG.
“To do this we are going to be increasing the residential class. There are a lot of homeowners who are struggling in that class as well. We have to always be careful of how we tip it,” he said.
Counties Treasurer Rebecca Russell reminded council that tax rates are set at each budget, and that the bylaw to add this new property subclass could be rescinded at any time.
After further discussion, council voted to pass the bylaw as presented.
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