Greater Sudbury is northern Ontario's fastest-growing city, with $105.8 million in new construction and property renovations in 2020, according to annual assessment figures released by Municipal Property Assessment Corp. (MPAC).
The pandemic-year growth is a $477-million total injection to the tax bases of northern communities and a $37-billion boost in property values across Ontario.
All of the growth comes from new construction and renovations to existing properties, because MPAC did no reassessments on existing properties that didn't undergo renovations during the past year.
Among the nine cities in northern Ontario, Sudbury was followed by Thunder Bay with $57.8 million assessment growth, and Sault Ste. Marie at $31.3 million.
Here's how the north's six other cities stacked up:
- North Bay – $22.2 million
- Timmins – $21.7 million
- Kenora – $10.3 million
- Temiskaming Shores – $8.8 million
- Dryden – $2.9 million
- Elliot Lake – $3.0 million
Toronto topped the province-wide list for new assessment with growth of $11.7 billion.
It was followed by Ottawa at $2.8 billion and Vaughan at $1.5 billion.
“One area that saw substantial growth was the warehousing and logistics sector, as we assessed eight new distribution centres with a total value of more than $405 million,” said Nicole McNeill, MPAC's president and chief administrative officer.
"With people spending more time at home this year we saw a 28 per cent increase in the number of renovation permits this year as people invested in making improvements to their homes,” McNeill said in a written statement.
Other municipalities with growing tax bases include:
- Hamilton – $1.2 billion
- Mississauga – $1.1 billion
- Brampton – $1.1 billion
- Markham – $966 million
- Oakville – $951 million
- Milton – $901 million
- London – $706 million
- Blind River - $2.4 million
- Wawa – $650,000
- Hornepayne Twp - $185,500
The province's cottage country posted major assessment growth, with seasonal properties in places like Muskoka Lakes, Lake of Bays, Sequin Township, Innisfil and Kawartha Lakes adding almost $600 million.
MPAC is an independent not-for-profit corporation funded by all Ontario municipalities and accountable to the province, municipalities and property taxpayers.
It assesses and classifies all properties in Ontario, providing assessments that serve as the foundation used by municipalities to calculate property taxes needed to pay for community services.
