How Can You Get Involved?

Your voice with your elected officials remains a most important tool to encourage a meaningful dialogue and action on property tax reform.  FOCA encourages all of our members to take an active role with their respective elected officials and policy makers.  Property tax issues as they relate to assessment reside with the Province of Ontario.  

Your support of FOCA is an important step. 

Some Background

In 2004, upon the recommendation of FOCA’s Tax Chairman, Noel Thomas, FOCA committed to support the coalition called WRAFT (Waterfront Ratepayers After Fair Taxation), and became a founding member.  The FOCA Board have embraced the problems related to unfair property taxation, and committed to the work that needed to be undertaken by this coalition, in the name of delivering tax reform on behalf of FOCA’s members and all of Ontario’s waterfront residents.
Other founding WRAFT members were Lake of Bays Association (LOBA), Muskoka Lakes Association (MLA), Township of Muskoka Lakes Ratepayers Associations (TMLRA).

Since inception, over 300 associations (FOCA members and others) and hundreds of individuals joined the coalition and/or supported the efforts of this group. 

WRAFT's Board of Directors represented a large cross section of waterfront Ontario interests, heralding from the far northwest of the province, from Lake Huron and Georgian Bay, many parts of Central and Eastern Ontario, including the areas along the St. Lawrence River.   

Since 2004, FOCA has been active on the Board of WRAFT, attending WRAFT Board meetings, representing WRAFT and FOCA with municipal and provincial politicians and bureaucrats, at FOCA member events, and special tax-related forums and meetings.         

FOCA has also helped to facilitate/organize each of the WRAFT Annual General Meetings, and a number of other property taxation-related events.

Since 2009, FOCA has acted as the head office for WRAFT and shared FOCA's Executive Director, and in 2011 the Board of WRAFT  decided to formally embed the property tax file fully back within FOCA.

Why WRAFT?

The problem of unfair waterfront taxation first gained recognition through recommendations made by the (District of) Muskoka Task Force Report, who  recognized that municipalities are currently restricted in what they can really do about the situation, and that the underlying flaws and ongoing problems lay within the current provincial legislation.

The WRAFT coalition helped to present a professional, province-wide voice with an impressive breadth of members and have an ongoing presence and impact at Queen’s Park. 

FOCA’s property tax reform interests, a core concern of our members, had spread and were now impacting property owners in municipalities across Ontario, waterfront and non-waterfront alike.  In early 2006, recognizing the depth of the problem, the Coalition After Property Tax Reform (CAPTR) was formed, taking an even broader approach to residential property tax reform in Ontario. CAPTR quickly grew to an alliance that counted amongst its members, over 700 ratepayer organizations and two major seniors' organizations, representing over one million Ontario property owners.  CAPTR’s mission: to bring Equity and Stability to the Residential Property Tax System by placing Limits on Assessment Increases.  Organizations concerned with reforming the residential property tax system joined CAPTR, to help the efforts of others including the Retired Teachers of Ontario,  United Senior Citizens of Ontario, Federation of Urban Neighbourhoods, Confederation of Resident and Ratepayer Associations, and the Federation of North Toronto Residents Associations .

How to get involved?

Speak up on behalf of your own property, and your own neighbourhood.

Support the property tax efforts of FOCA, today!