NDP leader calls drop in Stelco land value ‘fishy’

NDP leader Andrea Horwath is calling into question a recent reassessment of vacant Stelco land that dropped its value from $108,000 an acre to just $100 an acre.

Horwath says it’s a sketchy decision by the municipal property assessment corporation that rips off Hamiltonians.

“Those lands have always been in the shape that they’re in,” she said.

“To have those lands devalued by 99.9 per cent of their value in one short year, there is something definitely fishy about that.”

She adds it sets a dangerous precedent.

“Every other industrial landowner in the city is going to be applying for a similar reduction.”

Horwath is calling for an independent out-of-province property assessment body to evaluate the lands and for an investigation to be launched into the MPAC decision.

She says she has yet to hear from Premier Kathleen Wynne on the situation but plans to bring it up once the legislature returns from the Winter break.