Membership News
Welcome to new member Melanie Cobb from Provincial Assessment Services in Morden who joined the AAOM in September 2017.
More Retirements!
Blaine Fallis did not renew his membership in the AAOM for 2018 as he will be retiring early in the year. Blaine is from Assessment Services in Brandon and joined the AAOM in 2008. Best of Health and Happiness in your retirement Blaine!
2018 Memberships:
All membership cheques and e transfers for 2018 have, or will be deposited soon.
Receipts will be e mailed shortly.
IMA Kenora District Meeting – submitted by Mirek Frolek, A.A.M.
Marc Connelly (a Director on the AAOM Executive Council) and I had the opportunity to attend the District # 9 (North Western Ontario) meeting on Thursday, September 14th. 2017. This meeting and seminar is a one day event with approximately 20 people attending. The size of this event makes it perfect for networking where we were able discuss day to day issues of our profession.
The first session of the day was presented by Melissa Shaw (a former ATD staff member) and Megan Dokuchie from the City of Kenora. This presentation, “Boom to Bust to Boom-The reinventing of a North-western Town”, described the impact of the closure of the paper mill and different incentive programs that were put in place to reinvent Kenora in conjunction with the private sector, in regard to housing, improving curb appeal of local businesses and development.
Graham Chaze, a Broker of Record for Cabin Country Realty Ltd, provided some insight on the recreational waterfront market in Kenora for residential homes and cabins. He spoke about market factors impacting market prices in the areas of location, road access, title ownership vs. leased land subdivisions, and the importance of being less than two hours away. Ninety percent of the buyers in the Lake of the Woods are from Winnipeg and it takes, on average, about two years to sell a property in the area. He also mentioned how the Steinbach Credit Union assists many potential property owners with financing.
Finally, Bonnie Mick, a manager of Valuation and Customer Relations for Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) did a presentation on the untapped mining potential occurring in North-western Ontario and how the cities of Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay are competing to direct some of these economic opportunities to their communities to support these projects. She spoke about the six steps in the Mining sequence and how only one exploration in ten thousand becomes a mine and currently there are 39 mining operations in Ontario. The Ontario Mining Association stated that there is more than twelve billion dollars contributed to the Canadian Domestic Product which creates over 78,800 jobs.
On a final note, I would like to mention that this summer I was in Minot, North Dakota, for personal reasons and decided to visit a colleague. Some of you might recall that Kevin Ternes, the City Assessor of Minot, spoke at our A.A.O.M. Conference a few years ago, and that he participated in the mock municipal tribunal with Denise Pambrun. We spoke about oil prices in Western North Dakota and how it has impacted that community with regard to real estate values. I extended an invitation to Kevin for him to speak at our conference again before he decides to retire!
