BACKGROUND:
Municipal user fees are described as a
charge to the user for a specific municipal service, activity or product, or
for the use of municipal property. Part
XII of the Municipal Act, 2001, provides
the authority for implementation of municipal user fees and charges and
requires that the user fees be approved by Council and enacted by by-law. Fees and charges are intended to recover
costs associated with the delivery of services or activities on behalf of the municipality.
On December 10, 2002, the Town of Markham passed By-Law
2002-276, as amended, entitled “To Impose Fees or Charges for Services or
Activities provided or done by The Town of Markham.” The new fee discussed in this report will
require that the By-law be amended.
In establishing user fees for specific
municipal services, activities or products, the municipality recognizes the
need to recover operating costs associated with the requirement of that
service. By passing the cost of certain
services to the consumer, only those individuals or groups that utilize the
service pay for the cost of providing it, rather than taxpayers in general.
OPTIONS/ DISCUSSION:
As the Town of Markham grows, the addition of new fees will
assist in recovering the costs of administering the number of increasing tax
accounts while maintaining existing service levels.
Various Town departments provide services
to property, whether requested by the owner or not, resulting in fees or
charges. These can include charges for grass
or weed cutting, debris removal, etc. Unpaid water and sewer arrears are
another charge that could be added to the tax roll. Water and sewer charges are
currently billed and collected by PowerStream. Normally, these fees or charges
are billed and collected by the area responsible for doing the work or levying
the charge. In a small percentage of
cases, however, these fees remain unpaid by the owner of the property, despite
the best efforts of the originating department to collect these amounts.
Where collection efforts have been
unsuccessful, a department may request the Finance Department
to add such amounts to the tax collector's roll, as permitted by the Municipal Act, 2001 or other legislation,
and to collect them in like manner of taxes.
The addition of such charges to the tax
roll requires staff time to enter and track these amounts on the tax system, in
addition to the costs of processing any payments received.
The $30.00 service charge is consistent
with the current charge levied for NSF/returned cheques, and is intended to
cover the Town’s administrative costs of processing and collection. Other Ontario
municipalities including Toronto,
Ottawa and Pickering have similar
fees. There have been, from time to time, charges added to the tax roll but the
quantity has not been excessive – only about 20 charges were added to the tax
roll last year. However, as the Town
continues to grow, it is likely the number of such charges will also increase. In
fact, PowerStream and the Town have recently met to discuss a process to
provide for the addition of water and sewer arrears to the tax rolls (which is
the subject of a separate report before this committee today).
This report proposes that any charge that
cannot be collected through normal collection activities, but which legislation authorizes may be added to the collector's
roll, be added to the roll and that
an administration fee of $30.00 for such action be added to the tax account.
Upon Council approval of the
recommendations within this report, By-law 2002-276 (Fee By-law) will be need
to be amended to implement this administrative fee.
FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS:
The approval of the new fee ensures that
Town would be adopting a “best practices” approach to financial management as
well as generating revenue related to cost recovery for municipal services.
Implementing a fee of $30.00 for unpaid invoices and water arrears
transferred to the tax roll and other charges permitted under the Municipal Act, 2001, based on estimated
annual transfers of 300, could generate annual revenue of $9,000. The 2009
budget will be adjusted to reflect this new revenue stream.
ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS:
Not applicable.
ACCESSIBILITY CONSIDERATIONS:
Not applicable.
ENGAGE 21st CONSIDERATIONS:
Not applicable.
