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Elevating the property owner and stakeholder experience
Elevating the property owner and stakeholder experience
2022 brought a lot of changes to the municipal landscape. In our continuous efforts to elevate our municipal and stakeholder experience, we welcomed new and returning MPPs, Heads of Council, and council members from across the province following the 2022 provincial and municipal elections. With a return to in-person events and conferences, we also had the opportunity to meet new industry partners and reintroduce ourselves to our stakeholders as Ontario’s property market experts.
The 2022 municipal and school board elections
The 2022 municipal and school board elections
The October 24, 2022 municipal and school board elections marked MPAC’s final delivery of a province-wide Preliminary List of Electors (PLE).
Leading up to the elections, MPAC worked closely with municipalities and association partners to promote VoterLookUp.ca, our online tool which enables eligible electors to confirm or update their electoral information, add an elector name to an address, and change school support for the purpose of voting in a school board election.
We provided municipalities with both print and digital content. We deployed a targeted outreach campaign for tenants and students, and created digital toolkits that municipalities could use to encourage potential voters to confirm their information on VoterLookUp.ca.
With more than 215,000 VoterLookUp.ca searches leading up to the elections, the campaign’s success was a result of municipalities’ efforts to help promote and educate their residents about the tool.
MPAC will continue to work closely with our elections partners to transfer responsibility for the PLE to Elections Ontario on January 1, 2024. MPAC will, however, retain responsibility for receiving and approving any changes to direction of school support beyond this date, and in the meantime, we will continue to support municipal by-elections up to the end of 2023.
Supporting MPPs, municipal councils, and municipal staff
Supporting MPPs, municipal councils, and municipal staff
Along with our monthly webinar series, our ‘InTouch’ municipal newsletter continues to provide municipal elected and nonelected staff with timely updates.
To help better serve our municipal partners, we also offered many council orientation sessions to newly formed councils between the October 24 election and December 31, 2022, with more underway in 2023. The sessions served as an opportunity to discuss MPAC’s role in the property assessment and taxation process, explore the relationships between property values and taxes, share information about MPAC’s services, and hear about local priorities.
We continued to support MPPs through various channels, including our quarterly ‘Assessment Matters’ newsletter, outreach initiatives and responding to constituent inquiries.
Testimonial
“It was great to have our MPAC representative out to meet with our staff and new council to help them understand the valued relationship between our municipality and MPAC, and how we ensure property tax and assessment work together.”
Annie Rochefort | Clerk for the Township of Alfred-Plantagenet
Developing meaningful connections through creative solutions
Developing meaningful connections through creative solutions
We recognize that when homeowners have questions about their property taxes, they typically turn to their municipal government. When it comes to the relationship between property taxes and assessment, however, municipal leaders and employees do not always have the necessary tools to provide their constituents with the big picture.
To help bridge the gap, MPAC built a Property Assessment and Taxation Toolkit that municipalities can use to provide information and support when residents have questions. The toolkit includes:
- MPAC’s new video on How Property Taxes are Calculated.
- Information on MPAC’s Myth vs Fact education campaign.
- Key messages about the relationship between property assessment and property taxes.
- Frequently asked questions for municipalities to share with their frontline staff to support them in responding to inquiries they may receive from property owners.
- Shareable content for municipalities to post on their websites, in newsletters and on social media channels.
- Downloadable print materials for both municipal and provincial stakeholders that outline MPAC’s role in the property assessment and taxation process.
How Properties Taxes are Calculated
Enhancing our partnerships through in-person engagements
Enhancing our partnerships through in-person engagements
In addition to our success in developing creative digital solutions for our municipal partners, we enjoyed reconnecting in-person with a return to municipal conferences.
MPAC had the pleasure of meeting municipal representatives at events across the province – from the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association (NOMA) conference to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference. Our Municipal and Stakeholder Relations team attended 14 municipal conferences this year, in-person and virtually, where we provided update sessions and had productive discussions with municipal leaders during focus groups and exhibitor tradeshows.
After a three-year pause, we were also excited to return to the International Plowing Match & Rural Expo (IPM) as an exhibitor. Attracting over 67,000 visitors from across the province and beyond, the five-day celebration of agriculture and rural living is the largest event of its kind in North America.
With nearly 50 MPPs in attendance, including Ministers and their staff, the event was an important opportunity for our Government Relations team to listen to issues and concerns, answer questions, and share how MPAC can support them.
Beyond events, our team engaged with municipal staff and elected officials more than 1,500 times in 2022 and responded to 97.7% of municipal inquiries within the time periods outlined in our Service Level Agreement with municipalities.
To learn more about how we demonstrated our commitment to elevating the municipal experience, read our 2022 Municipal Partnerships Report.
Testimonial
“It was important for us to connect with MPPs, Ministers and their staff and share our plans to reach out to constituencies and showcase our latest products and services. The casual environment was perfect for having candid dialogues and we are looking forward to continuing our conversations.”
James H. | Governance and Strategy
Building permits for the modern world
Building permits for the modern world
Electronic submissions of building permits and building plans expedite our process for providing new assessments to municipalities, thus creating new municipal revenue opportunities.
In 2022, we continued to collaborate with municipalities to digitize their building permitting process. In partnership with the Association of Municipalities of Ontario’s (AMO) business arm, Local Authority Services (LAS), we developed the e-permitting pilot project to demonstrate the value of digital permitting for Ontario municipalities.
As a result of our continued efforts this year, 31% of all permits are now being submitted electronically.
We also created our Application Programming Interface (API), which allows MPAC to electronically retrieve approved building plans prior to construction.
Since rolling it out in June 2022, 84 municipalities have adopted the API, with more municipalities being onboarded on an ongoing basis.
“The Building Permit Modernization project is a great example of MPAC’s commitment to innovative solutions that support efficient service delivery and provide further value to our municipal partners.”
Carmelo Lipsi
Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer