Imposing building vacancy tax a no-go in downtown Midland
By: Derek Howard, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Source: MidlandToday.ca, Jan 20, 2025
It turns out, much to Midland council’s dismay, that the province likes to encourage commercial building owners to fix their vacant buildings rather than penalize them if left abandoned.
At the heart of the matter is a commercial building in Midland’s downtown core that has been vacant for over three decades. Last May, council directed town staff to explore implementation of a vacant building tax/fee on vacant commercial storefront buildings facing King Street in the downtown.
The item was described by Mayor Bill Gordon as a “bit of a letdown bummer report, but it makes perfect sense.” According to the report, staff and the county’s tax consultant looked at the appropriateness of implementing such a tax. “The long and short of it is that type of tax would violate the Municipal Act,” explained CFO Lindsay Barron, “(which is) our governing body for 443 of the 44 municipalities within Ontario, and currently that is not a provision of the Act. “Typically we’ll see commercial properties of that nature are given tax rebates instead of additional tax when those vacancies occur, as more of an incentive program to try to revitalize the downtown area,” Barron added.
Coun. Bill Meridis, a downtown landlord with family connections to storefronts as well as being the council representative for the Downtown Midland Business Improvement Area, noted that he had introduced the motion but hadn’t asked to be connected to paying for such building owners to have their properties repaired through the resident tax base. “In particular, there’s at least one that’s been vacant for 30-plus years,” said Meridis, adding he didn’t know why it was that way. “In my eyes, that is the responsibility of the building owner; to make our downtown thrive we don’t want to see buildings left vacant for 30 years. “By no means would I support an incentive for building owners to fix up their buildings. They’ve bought their investment, and they should take care of their investment.”
Meridis pointed out that the Downtown BIA provides an incentive paid for by building owners and not the tax base, that will contribute $5,000 for a business in their membership to fix up their storefront.
Gordon praised Meridis for his comments and supported the move to keep any renovations off the shoulders of the Midland taxpayer. “We’ll find other ways, and one of the tandem ways we spoke about,” said Gordon, “is beefing up our property standards bylaws. Especially as it comes to vacant buildings left to decay with nasty old mouldy paper in the window – just making the place all look like a ghost town.
“That’s coming in a rewrite of our property standards and how that will be enforced,” Gordon added. “That may help to some degree, although it doesn’t help to occupy the building – at least it won’t look like the scene of a horror movie.”
The commercial vacancy tax report is available in the council agenda on the town of Midland website.
Council meetings are held every third Wednesday, and can be viewed on Rogers TV cable channel 53 when available, or through the livestream on the Rogers TV website. Archives of council meetings are available through Rogers TV and on the Town of Midland’s YouTube channel.
As tax hike looms, residents stay silent at Midland budget public meeting
By: Derek Howard, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Source: MidlandToday.ca, Jan 17, 2025
Joking that he “lost money on that bet” as no one spoke up at a public meeting regarding Midland’s upcoming 2025 budget, Mayor Bill Gordon later noted that nearly 500 residents did provide input through the budget survey.
In anticipation of the upcoming three days of budget deliberations, a public meeting was scheduled for the recent regular meeting of council. A dozen attendees sat in the audience as preliminary council agenda items were addressed one by one.
Gordon began with casual introductions to four public meetings in the agenda, starting “with the most important one which I think we probably have folks in the house for,” being the 2025 budget.
Expecting attendance at the podium, Gordon told the crowd that council “are effectively all ears and pens.” He added, “I’m so happy that there’s people here this time; we had nobody last year – sorry, one drunk guy came in.”
While laying out the rules but playfully reiterating that no one would be kicked out for doubling on another’s comments or speaking to a previously submitted written comment, Gordon asked if any one would like to approach the podium.
One audience member cleared their throat in the silence. Laughter followed.
“Nobody’s here for the budget meeting?” asked Gordon to further laughter. “Okay. I’m a little depressed because I really was optimistic, because literally last year somebody staggered in by accident.”
After learning no one had registered online, he said: “I thought this was going to be the year.” “Anybody want to take a stab at it now that you’re thinking about it? Budget?” Gordon prompted to more laughs. “Taxes are going up, I guarantee you that. You want any say, (or) just trust us to spend your tax dollars wisely?” When no one spoke up, Gordon said, “Thank you for that vote of confidence.”
In fact, none of the attendees spoke to any of the four public meetings which surprised Gordon, who admitted, “I lost money on that bet.”
Many filed out shortly after the public meetings concluded.
After the meeting, MidlandToday asked Gordon what the benefit was of having residents contribute to annual budget discussions. “I can take some solace in the fact that we had a record number of respondents to our budget survey this year,” said Gordon. “Surveys typically have low uptake, so we really did get good feedback and a good number of respondents; almost 500.”
Admitting that public meetings could sometimes be intimidating at the podium and that greater attendance was usually reserved when meetings involved neighbours surrounding a contentious matter, as seen with the recent Yonge Street development attendance, Gordon said that providing questions and comments online was a better option for some. “I jokingly said (during tonight’s meeting): it’s either a sign of confidence and endorsement that there’s enough good eggs on council that we’re managing expenses as best we can, and we’re doing a good job explaining it throughout the year leading up to this,” said Gordon, “or it’s just complete apathy and people just figure we’re going to do whatever we want anyway so why talk to us. I’m hoping it’s not the latter.”
Information on the 2025 draft budget is available on the town website, with Gordon encouraging residents to bring their comments and concerns through the portal for finance staff to receive and properly address.
Council meetings are held every third Wednesday, and can be viewed on Rogers TV cable channel 53 when available, or through the livestream on the Rogers TV website. Archives of council meetings are available through Rogers TV and on the Town of Midland’s YouTube channel.