Wednesday, June 05, 2013

Property Assessments On Wind Turbines To Rise

Reading between the lines, its been clear that the various players in the green energy energy business haven't been too happy with the Wynne government's wind-down of the feed-in tariff (FIT) for large-scale projects. This article makes their discomfort a little more obvious.  One bit from it mentions something I had not been previously aware of:

There is one change that existing contract holders will have to deal with as the province tries to make sure municipalities see financial benefit from wind projects within their borders. 

"Work with the Ministry of Finance is currently under way to increase the property tax assessment for existing and future wind turbines, and we expect to make an announcement this year," said the 

This has been an issue for the municipalities asked to host wind-farms for awhile now.  They don't think they're getting much out of the deal per turbine:

 St. Clair Township Mayor Steve Arnold says the artificially low assessment means lower tax revenue for the municipality estimating a turbine would generate $500 to $1,000 in taxes. “That’s not a lot of dollars for the local municipalities; that’s what has driven a lot of municipalities to put extra costs onto the projects.”

Arnold says municipalities were led to believe it would up to $10,000 per turbine. “There is a lot of miscommunication.”

Some problems can be solved with money.  We'll see if this is one of them, I guess.  Presumably the cost will fall on the developer, not the land owner.

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