ï Facts
| What does "Free" mean? ï DSSAB ï ASB ï
TAXES (PLT)
What does it cost to live
in the UT? A false myth is that people
live there to avoid paying taxes. If you
look at only the PLT (Provincial Land Tax) bill, that is an easy mistake to
make. However, School taxes are billed
directly to ratepayers, and these invoices now contain an estimated billing for
the operation of the district-wide service boards, which have shifted many
service-delivery responsibilities from municipalities, and the Province to the
District. The UT’s (unincorporated
territories) are in full tax participation! (The exceptions are properties
which school boards have chosen not to tax...a mystery which needs to be
solved) Many additional services
delivered in the UT are also billed directly to ratepayers by Service Boards;
these can include roads, fire, recreation, and even street lighting, water,
& sewer if available. Of course,
UT’s receive grants and matching funds from the Province, but then so do
incorporated municipalities (over half of budget revenues in many cases). Municipal Financial
Subsidies
If the total taxes at the
end of the day are lower then those in an incorporated territory, it is because
residents have opted to live with fewer services. If someone has a transit service, library,
garbage pick-up, water & sewer, paved & lit streets, a town council,
and bylaws enforcement, shouldn’t they expect to pay more taxes than someone
who lives on a bush road with none of these?
The Thunder Bay District (see map) occupies approximately 125,000 square
kilometres of North-Western Ontario.
Unincorporated Territories, which we refer to as the UT, are surveyed
into over 100 townships, and form about 122,000 square miles of this total. The
City of
There are approximately
225,000 “residents” in
Unincorporated Territories
have chosen not to incorporate their townships and form a “municipal” layer of
government. By doing this, residents
indicate their preference to avoid the trappings of a municipality. The freedoms this brings are very basic,
and while they may seem unimportant to those in more organized cities and municipalities,
they are often the very reason people have chosen to live in an unincorporated
territory.
How simple can these valued
freedoms be? In most of the UT
(unincorporated territories), you can locate the kind of buildings you want on
your property, and not be subject to restrictive by-laws. You can run your home business without
municipal fees or licenses. You can park your pulp truck and trailer in your
driveway, and keep chickens in the front yard, if you want. There are no
dogcatchers, or dog licenses to buy. It
is not illegal in most of the UT to discharge a firearm, and if your property
is in a hunting zone, you can hunt on your own land when the season is
open.
In the UT, there are no
mayors, reeves, councillors, or clerks.
There are Local Service Boards, Roads Board, Fire Teams, Recreation
Associations, Campers’ Associations, etc. and these are operated by volunteers
who may or may not receive an honorarium.
The UT is way ahead of the rest of the province in reducing the cost of
government!
DSSAB; District Social Services Administration Board
A District Social Services
Administration Board has been formed in the Thunder Bay District. It is called the TBDSSAB and should be a
contender if there is ever an acronym contest.
When this Board was formed, responsibility for administering Ontario
Works (welfare), childcare, and Social Housing became the District’s. The local board has decided to keep the
status quo as much as possible and not set up additional layers of
government. The first changes noticed in
the Thunder Bay District is the shift of the delivery of services in the UT
from provincial offices, to TBDSSAB offices, either in the City of Thunder Bay,
or other nearby Municipal offices.
Several municipalities near the City of
Those individuals affected
by this change have been sent direct notice of these changes, and if anyone
becomes aware of any problems associated with the delivery of social services
to any UT residents, these problems should be reported to the TBDSSAB. The representative for the UT on the Board is
Bob Katajamaki. No
names need to be given, and confidence is assured; just forward general
information about the kind of problems encountered to the Thunder Bay District Social Services Administration Board
Offices (807) 766 - 2107.
In order to communicate
within the District, the FTNS, (TBDURA) the Thunder Bay District Unincorporated
Ratepayers Association was formed.
Lines of communication were to be established, and this web site is one
of the important first steps. It had
been decided that four regions would be established within the large
geographical area; they would be Thunder Bay South West, Thunder Bay North
East, Highway 11 East, and Highway 17 East.
Each region would have had an official representative to be elected. This formula was rejected. Decisions are being made now by TBDSSAB which
will greatly affect service delivery in the region.
ASB;
Area Service Board
It is expected that the
process of shifting the delivery of services from the Province to Districts
will continue, and eventually the District Social Services Administration Board
will become an Area Service Board. This
Board will have direct taxation authority, and may take on the responsibility
of administering additional services such as social housing, ambulances,
policing, economic development, etc. If
done correctly, it can help alleviate the fear that UT must incorporate, as
many of the services which were once delivered by municipalities will in future
be delivered by an Area Service Board, regardless of what level of organization
was previously in place.
When the process of forming
such a Board was discontinued, there were 3 or 4 representatives being chosen
from the UT, and if this process is re-instated, the FTNS, (TBDURA) the Thunder
Bay District Unincorporated Ratepayers Association will be able to assist in
the selection of these representatives.
Copyright ©
Last revised: November19, 2006
If you
wish to PRINT this page, either right click and select the Print option (if your browser
supports this option), or press Control + P (Windows) or Command + P
(Macintosh) to open the print dialog box.