A proposal to have two penalties for late payment of property taxes was shot down by city council on Monday.
Coun. Ron Cannan wanted to go back to an old system in which a small penalty was imposed on taxpayers who missed the July 1 deadline with a heavier fine if they were still late on Aug. 1.
鈥淢any late property tax payments stem from unintended oversights,鈥 said Cannan in a draft resolution. 鈥淚 have personally heard from numerous property owners across various age groups who believed they had successfully applied for the Homeowner Grant online, only to later receive a letter stating otherwise and subsequently incur a 10% penalty due to what appears to be a technical and/or administrative error.鈥
Medical emergencies have also caused some to miss the deadline, he said.
Calling for some empathy from the city, Cannan suggested a 5% penalty for the initial lateness with 5% added if taxes still aren鈥檛 paid a month later.
His motion prompted a few councillors to describe their own late payments or deadline close calls.
鈥業鈥檓 one of those 4% who neglected 鈥 I forgot to file for my homeowners鈥 grant and got the full-size city bill in the mail. So I quickly fixed the situation and now I鈥檒l still be paying the 10%,鈥 said Coun. Rick Webber. 鈥淚 can see how it can happen.鈥
Maxine DeHart said she didn鈥檛 miss the tax deadline, but her husband, Chris, did. Mohini Singh and Gord Lovegrove said they almost missed the tax deadline.
Mayor Tom Dyas gently but disdainfully shot down Cannan乌鸦传媒 idea.
Dyas and others said council changed the tax penalty to a single fine in 2020 to reduce the load on city staff 鈥 so they wouldn鈥檛 have to send out two late-payment reminders to an estimated 3,000 (out of 62,000) late filers.
鈥淣ow we would not only be dealing with the 3,000 that might have missed their payment. But now that乌鸦传媒 multiple communications with them and multiple times we have to go back to them,鈥濃 said Coun. Luke Stack. 鈥淥ne of the reasons we went back to the flat 10% was to try to minimize all of that.鈥
鈥淚f somebody cannot really put in their calendar that taxes are due July 1st, that onus should be on them,鈥 said Dyas. 鈥淭he onus should not be upon staff to spend extra time to basically deal with that individual.
Dyas said he spoke to many who came to city hall to pay their taxes in person. He said it乌鸦传媒 not a burning issue with taxpayers.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 get any letters on it. Nobody was really concerned with regards to it. I didn鈥檛 receive anything on this,鈥 the mayor said.