The Municipality of Magnetawan Ratepayers Association

Incorporated under the laws of the Province of Ontario #1608026
P.O. Box 108
Magnetawan, Ontario
POA 1PO

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e-mail: director@magratepayer.ca

The rate payers association has been active with your council. We value your input please send us your comments.

Recently we received an e-mail from the former "appointed" mayor, Sam Dunnett it follows . . . . .

Original Message -----
From: <mailto:Arrowprt@aol.com>Arrowprt@aol.com
To: <mailto:geoinch@vianet.ca>geoinch@vianet.ca
Sent: Saturday, October 06, 2007 9:55 AM
Subject: Landfill compaction

George, I am sure that you and your Assoc. are aware of the awarding of the Landfill compacting and site covering  contract to Kelly Hickey for his services to supply an excavator and operator as needed  to compact and cover the land fill site dump areas for $108.00 per hour  You are also aware that Mr Hickey submitted a quote this past spring  to supply to our Municipality the same the equipment to do whatever is required (work to be identified by our road supertindent) in our  Municipality at a rate of $66.00 dollars per hour. Why are we, the ratepayers paying $42.00 per hour more for the same equipment to do the same work??? This additional gouging of $42.00 per hour more will no doubt cost the ratepayers thousands of additional  tax dollars to do the same work that Mr Hickey promised to do for $66.00 per hour. I phoned Frank Tod to receive an explanation  but as usual all you ever get with Frank is his message machine and he never returns calls. You, as the chairperson of the Ratepayers Assoc.have an obligation to look for this type of corruption being committed on a regular basis by our Council and bring this matter to the public's attention. I await you answer on the above important noted matter.
Sam

The board met to discuss the e-mail and met with Kelly Hickey to accertain the facts. . . . the following is our reply to Mr Dunnett

Dear Mr. S. Dunnett
As you know, the tendering process is designed to obtain the best competitive price for a service and the $108 hourly rate submitted by Mr. Hickey was the lowest of the three tenders submitted for the landfill compacting contract. Based on this, there is no reason to believe that the Municipality is not getting the best price available. The $62.50 submitted earlier by Mr. Hickey has nothing to do with the landfill compacting contract.

In obtaining these figures, I had a conversation with Ron Catcher in which he was of the opinion that the excavator being used by Mr. Hickey was not compacting the landfill as well as the bulldozer which was previously used. Although much heavier than the bulldozer (14 tons vs 8.5 tons) he thought that the bigger tracks on the excavator would result in a lower pressure on the ground. To determine the pressure (per square foot), measurements were made of the ground area covered by the tracks of both a bulldozer and an excavator.

The bulldozer tracks measured 9 feet on the ground and 18 inches across. The ground area covered is 27 square feet which indicates a ground pressure of approximately 630 pounds per square foot. The excavator tracks measured 9 feet 8 inches on the ground and 24 inches across. The ground area covered is 38.7 square feet  which indicates a ground pressure of approximately 724 pounds per square foot. There can be no doubt that the downward pressure exerted by the excavator is appreciably greater (about 15%) than that exerted by the bulldozer which would result in better compaction of the landfill.
Mr. Catcher also said that the compaction would be improved if the plastic bags in the landfill were shredded and that the bulldozer tracks accomplished this better than the excavator tracks. Since plastic bags make up only a small percent of the landfill volume and since the tracks would shred only the bags on the surface, it is very unlikely that shredding is an important factor in the compacting process.
We, therefore, conclude that the excavator compacts the landfill better than does the bulldozer.

Another feature that was noted was that the cost per compacting is very much less when done by an excavator. The last three invoices submitted by the previous contractor, using a bulldozer, were $5375, $3190 and $4475 which average $4347 per compacting of the two landfill sites and GST was not charged. The only invoice submitted by Mr. Hickey for compacting the two sites was for $1974.78 which includes GST. There can be no doubt that the Municipality will realize savings of thousands of dollars over the life of this contract.

George Inch Chairman


The board of directors has also written to the council a copy of the above letter and we have commended them on the choice of the new contractor. We have suggested that additional compaction of the landfill may be of benifit to extending the life of the landfill sites

Letter re the closeing of the popular "Dam Trail"
Municipality of  Magnetawan Council

As you know, there was widespread disapproval of the decision to limit pedestrian travel on the Dam Trail. We are aware that the previous mayor met with the MNR and agreed to the restrictions that the MNR placed on the Trail and that this decision is binding upon the current council. From private correspondence, it has been learned that this decision was primarily based on the dangers associated with ice and snow.

In view of this hazard being confined to the winter months when there is little or no   public interest in using the Dam Trail, would it be possible to reopen discussions with the MNR to consider the possibility of  limiting the restrictions to the winter months and letting the public use the complete Trail in the summer. This trail is certainly one of our best tourist attractions and it is recognized that our economic well-being is dependent upon the tourists. If renegotiations can remove this irritant, both the local citizens and the tourists will be pleased.

Geroge Inch -Chairman



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ARE YOU MAD ABOUT YOUR PROPERTY TAXES? JOIN OUR PROVINCE-WIDE PROTEST

DEMAND A 5% ANNUAL CAP ON PROPERTY ASSESSMENT INCREASES

IT’S NOW OR NEVER! – STOP ASSESSMENT ANARCHY!
(We need a 5% annual cap to protect our property rights)


CAPTR* 5% Capping Rationale

  • The PC Party has now adopted a cap of 5% in their election platform; the NDP has proposed a freeze position until a property is sold. CAPTR strongly supports 5% as a cap or smoothing mechanism. 5% approximates the long term average increase in residential property values in Ontario.
  • the 4 year phase-in introduced by the Liberals to mollify our movement for tax reform is just tinkering and merely giving many of us a gradual notice of eviction! - it neither deals with the volatility of the assessments nor with the basic unfairness of the assessment process.
  • in the last reassessment, 61% of all residential Ont. properties increased by more than 6.5% per year, and over 400,000 properties have increased by more than 13% per year – volatility caused by the system, not our actions!
  • through all party consent in Nov 2006 the Nova Scotia Legislature has capped assessment increases from 2008 onwards at the rate of inflation. - so there is a Canadian precedent.
  • the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) in an Oct 2006 report showed that Ontario collects more in property tax (as a % of GDP) than any country in the OECD. - so fairness becomes a huge issue.
  • 15 states in the US have capped assessments and none have subsequently removed it - so it works.
  • Maryland is the only US jurisdiction that uses a phase in approach similar to the Liberal policy, and it also imposes a cap – so why has the Ontario Government short-changed us?
  • the Ontario Ombudsman said in the appendix of his report that he experienced a "tidal wave of concerns" including the volatility and unpredictability of assessments, the shift in tax burden to "hot" property markets that trapped seniors and people on fixed incomes and the resulting tax on substantial unrealized capital gains. - so the concern is widespread.
  • When the current 3 year assessment freeze comes off in 2008, if the Liberals survive the Oct 10, 2007 election, they will have to deal with some very upset and hurting people if nothing further is done before then.
  • an assessment cap is revenue neutral to both the municipalities and the province. It does not cap taxes - only the volatility of their distribution amongst property owners.


Write or email your MPP TODAY – see
www.captr.org for how to do it!

* CAPTR is the Coalition After property Tax Reform comprised of Associations representing over one million Ontario property owners.

April 15, 2007


Mayor

Name
(Click on the name to send an e-mail)

Phone number
(705)

Richard ( Dick) Smith

387-1227

Councilors

Name
(Click on the name to send an e-mail)

Phone number
(705)

Frank Tod

382-1074

Kris

387-1260

Tony Pratas

387-1460

Patti Paul

387-4954


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