Applications open for Falls water, property tax credit

Seniors can now apply for the city’s annual water and property tax credit.

Those who qualify can receive a $100 water and $40 property tax account credit.

The credit is available to city water customers and property owners who reside at the property who are at least 65 years old on June 30, 2019. Seniors must be receiving the federal government’s Guaranteed Income Supplement to qualify for the credit.

To apply, a person needs proof of age with a birth certificate, driver’s licence or senior’s card, proof of the GIS (for example, a letter of change to the person’s GIS amount, which are mailed by Revenue Canada in July) or the person would provide authorization for the city to verify their GIS with Service Canada.

Providing proof from Revenue Canada that the applicant is receiving the GIS will expedite the rebate.

All applications are to be submitted by Oct. 31 and seniors can apply by visiting city hall, the MacBain Community Centre or by filling out forms that can be found on niagarafalls.ca.

City council set aside $68,000 for the water credit and $27,200 for the property tax credit in its budget to support the program for 2019. That will fund 680 applications for each credit this year.

Offering a property tax credit was the idea of Mayor Jim Diodati and goes back to 2010, when he first ran for the city’s top job. The program was created in 2011 and complemented the water credit the municipality already had on the books.

Diodati said the property tax credit idea came to him after meeting a senior in the north end during the 2010 election.

“I was going door and door and we just got talking and I was admiring his yard work and he told me, ‘I’m going to have to sell it pretty soon.’ I asked why and he said, ‘I can’t afford to stay.’”

Diodati said the senior told him his pension was not increasing enough to pay for increasing expenses, such as property taxes, gas and hydro.

The mayor said he spoke with city staff to find a way of alleviating a little bit of the burden for seniors.

“(The credits help) seniors – the ones that built this city, the ones that already paid their dues, paid into the system their whole life,” said Diodati.

“Many of them are beyond their employment years, or certainly they’re not as employable as someone that’s just entering the job market and their resources are limited, typically, at this age of their life. This is council’s way of helping the senior citizens to stay in their homes longer and give them a little bit of assistance if they’re in need of it.”