March 25, 2025
It’s one week until April Fool’s day. Property values up but Municipal property tax rate down and your dues are the same. Share your knowledge about our flora as well as loons and other fauna.
It’s time to pay your dues (again!)
We’ll be talking just below about how the MRC changed your property valuations and the Municipality lowered your property tax rate this year. Let’s start, however, by talking about what hasn’t gone up or down: your dues.
The funds the AALM receive each year help us take care of our lakes and surrounding environment, enhance our community, and promote safety, mutual respect, and other elements of our quality of life here.
You can pay your dues by clicking HERE.
Understanding (and maybe Challenging) Your New Property Valuations
What follows is what your Board members have learned talking to various MRC or related staff members. We previously sent out an email to members about this topic, but if you didn’t get it, you can find the text by clicking HERE.
DISCLAIMER: The AALM volunteers are not MRC staff, so what we are reporting is a “neighbourly sharing of information.” Everything should be confirmed with MRC staff should you want to know more.
Here is what we have heard from various sources.
Land value up more than your buildings: The biggest change in your property evaluation is tied to the value of your land.
Lakefront – yes or no: The MRC’s valuation does not care how much lakefront you have. Instead, you either have it or you do not. If you have it, your valuation be higher per square metre.
Hindrances matter, but you may need to prove it to the MRC: All property valuations were calculated with a broad stroke. The MRC staff may not have included whether your lot was buildable, had wetlands, or was otherwise hindered. If your lot has one or more of these hindrances and you can demonstrate them, then you should consider approaching the MRC to see if you can get a lower valuation on your property.
For more information on the City’s zoning and setbacks, you can go visit the relevant section of their website by clicking HERE. If you need help translating the French language information, see the end of the Newsletter for an easy way you can get a translation of the page using the Chrome browser.
Impact of Property Area – progressively downwards: The valuation of your property starts high for the first thousand square metres, and then subsequent drops per square metre as the lot gets larger. We are not sure if the same formula is applied to all zones in our Municipality. With that in mind, here is one example. A Board Member who met with MRC staff during private consultations was told the following with regards to how land evaluation values were calculated:
The first 1000 sq.m. of your property is valued at $400 per square metre.
The next 2000 sq.m. of your property is valued at $325 per square metre.
The next 7500 sq.m. of your property is valued at $45 per square metre.
The rest of your land is valued at $8 per square metre.
The Municipality lowered your property tax rate: Compared to last year, you are paying less taxes per dollar of your property valuation.
Visiting Boats Wake Surfing
The AALM has been working hard with residents to ensure that we can all share the lake safely and keeping in mind that we all want to enjoy the lake with as little hindrance as possible. It’s not always been easy.
Concurrently, our members all agree that we enjoy our lake because there aren’t too many boats. We also all agree that we don’t want eurasian milfoil or other invasive species entering our lake.
With all this in mind, the AALM approached the Municipality to present our members’ concerns about boats who might come from other areas to our lake to wake surf. We suggested a number of possible solutions and the Municipality has assured us that they are working towards responding to this possibility. The AALM will maintain regular contact with the Municipality as they work on this issue and will keep members up to date.
The Loons are Calling (We Hope)
Are you one of many who love the sound of loon calls during our idyllic summer days? If so, you’ll want to join the Environment Committee’s loon survey team as it monitors our loon population as the AALM once again participates in the Canadian Lakes Loon Survey this season.
Loon numbers around the country are decreasing and there is evidence that loon numbers are linked to the overall health of a lake. We have been lucky because Quebec numbers are better than the rest of Canada. The AALM wants to do our part in keeping it that way.
The loon survey team already has four keen volunteers and has room for one more loon enthusiast to take charge of the Baie Perrault/Desroches region. Judi Adams is waiting to hear from you at judith_adams@hotmail.com
To learn more about joining the loon survey, click HERE.
Hike and Share Your Knowledge of Plants and Animals
Do you want to share some of your local Laurentian knowledge? The Trails Committee is planning a summer hike and wants to make it more educational. This is a great opportunity to connect with people who love Manitou and its environment. Contact Joyce Arsenault by email at: jma42.2@sympatico.ca.
How to read French webpages in English
Go to the French website.
At the right side of your address bar (where the website address can be seen), you might see something that looks like this:
Click on that to see your translation options.
Note, you can click on “always translate” so that Chrome always translates French pages into English.
If you don’t see the translate symbol:
Open up the Chrome browser.
In the address bar, type in the following: chrome://settings/languages
Look for “Google Translate”
Click the button beside “Use google translate.”
Make sure that it’s translating to English where it says “Translate into this language.”