M-PAC Assessment Bad News For Dryden

A major blow for the City of Dryden.
The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation is out with its assessment of Domtar’s operations in Dryden and the new figure has come in at $14-million.
That’s a 72% drop in the assessed value from the previous $50-million.
Dryden Mayor Craig Nuttall says they will have to go back to the drawing board with the 2013 municipal budget.
Nuttall says he doesn’t blame Domtar but is instead questioning M-PAC.
He says “he doesn’t think M-PAC knows what they are doing and they have to get their act together.”
Nuttall says the City must fight the assessment, noting it’s stupidity that they came up with this number.
The assessment put’s the municipality in real tough shape.
The City used a figure of $36-million when drafting this years budget.
Without the large industrial taxation revenue, the City must now find a way to cover the shortfall.
The burden may be carried by local taxpayers, but Nuttall says it’s imperative that staff and council get to work quickly and find a solution.
He notes it’s unlikely the 2013 budget will be approved this month as originally planned.
Based on the projections staff were using, this would leave the City with a deficit of 3.7-million dollars.