LaSalle council has voted 'no' to a notice of motion.
A motion was presented on Tuesday evening by councillor Jeff Renaud, who was seeking council support to ask the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) to make re-establishing modern fair market valued assessments through MPAC a priority in 2026.
The MPAC assessment, which is the rate value of your property which then calculates your property taxes, has been frozen since 2016.
The assessment is supposed to be updated every fours.
As part of his motion, councillor Renaud wanted AMO to lobby to the province to restart the assessments prior to the 2027 budget cycle. Renaud say the lack of updated assessments has forced towns to raise tax rates instead of benefiting from natural assessment growth.
The motion failed, with many councillors concerned over how the updated rates would impact current LaSalle residents.
Councillor Mark Carrick says there's concern over what would happen if the assessment is changed.
"MPAC gets on board, the province says 'have at er', so you have a $500,000 home assessed at $250,000, so they're going to be assessed tax wise at $500,000... so, taxes are still going up through this assessment, so it's not like we're raising taxes every year."
Councillor Terry Burns says the homes between $2-million and $4-million are overpaying, and will see a drop in a new assessment.
"There may be $16,000 to $18,000 taxation base on a $2-million home is probably going to go down to $12,000, and the other ones within the town, little LaSalle, we're going to pick up that difference and farmlands."
Councillor Mike Seguin says he spoke to MPAC and is worried about those who have been in the town for many years.
"They didn't want to commit, but they said some are going to gain, some are going to lose. And the losers could be the ones that have been in LaSalle for a long time. Out of respect, I talked to councillor Renaud before this meeting, and I told him I'm going to have a hard time voting in favour of this motion."
Only councillor Renaud and deputy mayor Michael Akpata voted in favour of the motion.
In late November, council approved a 3.47 per cent tax levy increase, which amounted to an average increase of $110 in municipal taxes on a property assessed at $270,000.