Features Mills Sawmilling
Resolute reaches tax deal with Fort Frances

The property assessment will be reduced by 25 percent for the subject years 2009-12.

Resolute had been seeking reductions of about 58 percent.

The joint settlement means the town will have to repay Resolute a total of $1.763 million ($2.111 million minus the education tax component).

If the mill’s appeal had been 100 percent successful, the town would have had to repay $4.098 million ($4.919 million minus the education tax component).

The reduction in assessment also means a loss of future tax revenue for the town.

By how much has yet to be determined, but the town sees the settlement as a prudent measure in the mitigation of tax revenue loss.

“It’s very, very good news for the community,” Mayor Roy Avis told The Fort Frances Times.

“The Town of Fort Frances is pleased that Resolute Forest Products was willing to work together to achieve a settlement of this very important matter,” the town said in a press release.

“Given the recent decisions related to assessment within the forest sector, the town believes that this settlement was a proactive resolution to this appeal and could not have achieved this without the co-operation and consideration of Resolute Forest Products.

“The town and its citizens all share mutual concerns with assessment and the tax base,” it continued.

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