Changes made this month by Sault councillors are slapping new taxes on owners of commercial or industrial excess land.
Back in December, SooToday told you Sault Ste. Marie city council had set its 2026 operating budget levy at $151.6 million.
The levy was up 3.87 per cent per cent from 2025.
But that wasn’t the end of the story, so far as how much property tax we’ll be paying.
At a meeting on May 4, city councillors tweaked how that overall tax burden should be distributed among tax classes: residential, industrial, commercial, etc.
Here are the approved increases from last year after growth, as recommended by Lisa Petrocco, the city’s taxation manager:
residential – 3.78 per cent
new multi-residential – 3.68 per cent
multi-residential – 3.68 per cent
commercial occupied – 3.71 per cent
commercial excess land – 48.22 per cent
commercial on-farm business – 4.41 per cent
shopping occupied – 3.68 per cent
shopping excess land – 0.00 per cent
office occupied – 3.68 per cent
office excess land – 0.00 per cent
parking/vacant land – 3.75 per cent
industrial occupied – 1.66 per cent
industrial excess land – 56.54 per cent
industrial vacant land – 56.22 per cent
large industrial occupied – 1.52 per cent
large industrial excess – 56.19 per cent
aggregate extraction – 1.77 per cent
landfills – 0.00 per cent
pipelines – 4.39 per cent
farm – 4.19 per cent
managed forests – 4.36 per cent
Shifting the tax burden among property classifications must occur within guidelines set by the Ontario government.
Petrocco says this month’s adjustments maintain the residential tax class at or below the approved levy increase of 3.87 per cent, at the same time continuing the Sault’s gradual reduction of the commercial and industrial tax ratios through levy restrictions.
In 2026, 87.56 per cent of residential properties will increase by $17.25 per month or less for municipal taxes.
Shifting the burden among property classes means a tax increase of $138 for a typical single-family dwelling, $846 for a median apartment building, $234 for a small office building and $154 for a small retail commercial property.
Owners of a standard industrial property, on the other hand, will pay $1,025 more.
The province also requires municipalities to pass annual bylaws administering limits for non-residential tax classes.
Intended to protect commercial, industrial and multi-residential properties from big property tax increases, these bylaws cap tax hikes at five per cent due to changes in property value.
Council also agreed this month to make maximum use of capping tools for commercial classes this year.
“The caps established are not intended to be permanent,” Petrocco said.
“This will be the second year of the four-year phase-out to permanently exit the industrial class,” said Petrocco.
“The city is in the process of permanently exiting capping for all tax classes and has already exited capping for the multi-residential class in 2021 and commercial class in 2025,” Petrocco said in a report prepared for Mayor Matthew Shoemaker and ward councillors.