Wawa Municipal Council's considering next steps after a report on the apportionment calculation for the Algoma District Services Administration Board.
In their Corporate Planning Committee meeting last night, Council heard from outside firm Municipal Tax Equity Consultants, which looked at ADSAB's apportionment formula and specifically the way it considers the "power dam compensatory payment" that Wawa receives from the provincial government, in lieu of property taxes from hydro dams.
A different outside firm - Municipal Government Wayfinders - recommended in last year's municipal transformation report that the Municipality of Wawa should pursue a revisit of the model, suggesting it could save Wawa hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
The new report has a similar conclusion: while it doesn't dispute the inclusion of the payment in the formula, Council was told the way the model treats the payment has meant a "20 year migration from equity", and it's "no longer a valid measure" because the payment was not indexed to inflation by the province - it's currently just over $2.3-million but would be nearly $3.3-million if it had kept up with inflation.
It found the calculation currently costs the Municipality over 40 percent of the grant, over $1-million, but the report's recommended recalculation would see that reduced to about $337,000 - that was noted to have obviously potential ripples for other communities served by ADSAB, though the Township of North Shore would potentially see a reduction, too, as it also receives a similar payment to Wawa.
Mayor Pat Tait noted the point of the study was to review the situation, and Council now needs to figure out the strategy to address it, while CAO Maury O'Neill noted the Municipality has now received the annual payment, but it included no inflationary adjustment.