When the City of Barrie was hit by a tornado in July, MPAC reached out right away to offer our support. By working collaboratively with the City, a plan of action to both support the municipality and impacted property owners quickly took shape.
“Soon after the tornado hit, we had a series of meetings with MPAC and put together a plan for how we would address damage to properties and tax relief applications,” says Grace Marsh, Acting Manager, Property Tax and Revenue, City of Barrie. “We’ve been having weekly check-ins with MPAC to review what’s happening with properties and building permits, sharing information and establishing consistent messages to support property owners who suffered damage to their property.”
From MPAC’s perspective, the City of Barrie’s willingness to work together and share information has helped expedite assessments of damaged property.
“The City has been really helpful in providing us with as much information as they can so that we are only contacting property owners and conducting inspections when absolutely necessary,” says Kelan Jylha, Account Manager, Municipal and Stakeholder Relations. “We know this is a very challenging situation, and we want to complete our work quickly and with as little disruption to impacted property owners as possible.”
The City of Barrie and MPAC will stay in constant contact through the fall to update property data, and every effort will be made to capture as many changes as possible in time to be reflected on the return of the Assessment Roll in December.
