February 2021
Working together in 2021
While 2020 was an extraordinary year full of challenges unlike we’ve ever faced before, we would like to thank our partners and stakeholders for our ongoing collaboration. Together we’ve been able to continue to deliver on our core activities to property owners and municipalities under difficult circumstances.

As we move into 2021, we continue to look for new opportunities to work differently, including by engaging virtually through new Industry Advisory Group (IAG) subcommittees. We will also be resuming our annual Property Income and Expense Return program, which was deferred in 2020 in recognition of the ongoing challenges business owners and industries were facing. While no announcements have been made about the next Assessment Update at this time, we will share information with you as soon as it becomes available.

In November 2020, we paused field work and in-person appointments at our field offices in regions subject to ‘red – control’ and ‘grey – lockdown’ measures. All field work is currently paused during the provincial shutdown. Our team continues to be available to take calls and assist property owners online.

To those of you who have participated in our IAG meetings, thank you for sharing your valuable insights.

Stay safe.

Greg Martino, M.I.M.A.  
Vice-President and Chief Valuation & Standards Officer
Monitoring the market: working with stakeholders to understand COVID-19 impacts
As noted in the October issue of Industry Update, in late 2020 MPAC launched an initiative to better understand the impact COVID-19 is having on the market by establishing property sector-specific subcommittees.

In November, MPAC assessors and representatives from the International Property Tax Institute (IPTI) hosted the first two subcommittee meetings, one with retail property owners and stakeholders and the second with hospitality, and last week held meetings for office and multi-residential to discuss the unique challenges each sectors is facing. Following the meetings, individual follow-up interviews are being conducted to help us gather the information we need to support our ongoing market research and analysis.

If you are interested in learning more or being a part of a subcommittee please contact industry@mpac.ca.
2021 roll return captures how Ontario has changed
In December, we delivered assessment rolls to municipalities across Ontario with an estimated value of $3 trillion. Despite the pandemic, MPAC captured significant new assessment across Ontario, adding more than $37 billion in value to municipal assessment rolls from new construction and/or improvements to existing properties. There were 1,700 new buildings added to the commercial and industrial sectors across Ontario, and substantial growth occurred in the warehousing, and logistics sector with eight new distribution centres assessed at a total value of more than $405 million in 2020.

To learn more about how Ontario’s property landscape changed last year, check out this fact sheet.

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