GUYSBOROUGH — Low-income residents eligible for up to $300 in property tax relief will have two extra months to submit their 2025-26 exemption applications, following mail delivery failures that blocked some from receiving essential Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) documents.
The Municipality of the District of Guysborough (MODG) voted unanimously on July 16 to extend the July 31 deadline across all districts, after some residents reported that CRA notices of assessment never arrived – misaddressed and returned due to the use of rural route rather than standardized civic addresses, a Canada Post requirement.
“The issue… they were civic addresses, so they were all returned,” said District 6 Councillor Susan Cashin, who introduced the motion. “We [have] dealt with that as best we can… but it [has] happened again with the notice of assessments from CRA. I’ve been getting calls saying, ‘Well, we can’t complete our [property tax exemption] applications because we didn’t get our notice of assessment.’”
The documents are required to access the municipality’s low-income exemption program, which provides up to $300 in tax relief to residents earning less than $50,000 a year. Cashin told council she had contacted Cape Breton-Canso-Antigonish MP Jaime Battiste’s office and received a CRA form that residents can use to request replacements. “The MP’s office… they’re helping me with trying to get the notice of assessments,” she said. “It takes about three to four weeks to get a new notice… That’s why I’m asking for [a] two-month extension [from MODG].”
Though the problem appears confined to her district, Cashin moved for a municipality-wide extension, “because I didn’t want to feel that I was… having something more than the rest [of the municipality].”
Finance staff confirmed that no similar issues had been reported elsewhere but agreed with the motion. Incomplete applications, they said, can be accepted, processed and held separately until full documentation – including CRA notices – is received.
They cautioned, however, that current-year property tax accounts not yet paid in full will begin to accumulate interest on August 1, with charges applied September 1 if exemption write-offs are delayed.
Cashin described the issue as a symptom of deeper logistical challenges. “If I went to set up a CRA account and I type in 24 Cashin Road, Port Felix, it won’t take Port Felix… it goes to Larry’s River,” she said. “It’s not just the mail system. It’s the GPS. It’s everything.” She recalled a recent case in which a “consultant firm… ended up in Larry’s River [even though] they were looking for Bill and Stanley Oyster [Company] in Whitehead.”
While the exact number of affected applications is unclear, Cashin said she had already submitted three on behalf of residents. “I just don’t know. Not everybody is [coming forward] … I’m trying to narrow it down to help them.”
According to MODG’s 2022-23 municipal report to the Department of Municipal Affairs, 47 per cent of local residents were over the age of 60, with a median household income of approximately $54,000 – compared with 40 per cent and $62,000 provincially.
In an email to The Journal last week, Warden Paul Long noted: “With an average income in this [less than $50,000 per year] range, there is an opportunity for many households to take advantage of this [low-income property tax exemption] program. This… has a positive effect on those families that most need the extra help come tax time.”
