North Glengarry has found “discrepancies” in some tax accounts, says township CAO Daniel Gagnon. The township released a statement Thursday morning (February 2) saying that the issues “typically relate to the manner in which payments, penalty and interest were applied and reported.” The statement says the discrepancies were uncovered during a routine review, and that North Glengarry staff are now working with the township’s auditors.
Gagnon told The Review he could not provide much more detail as to the nature of the discrepancies. “That’s about as far as we can go in characterizing it, I don’t want to get too detailed until we understand the cause and the scale of it,” he said.
Gagnon said the problems affect more than one tax year, but couldn’t say exactly when the issues began. “We’re still trying to figure that out,” he said. They also don’t know yet how many people are affected, but “it’s not just a handful.”
The township is still in “fact-finding mode,” he said, and so they haven’t determined exactly how the issues will be corrected. They will be getting in touch directly with people who are affected, and Gagnon said anyone who suspects an issue with their tax bill can contact the township. He said there’s nothing in particular residents can check for on their bill, “but it’s usually fairly self-evident…if they see something on their bill that gets their attention, that they hadn’t seen before, like penalty and interest,” they can get in touch with the township.
Gagnon said the township will be providing more updates in the future. The press release from the township notes it will need to “carefully balance privacy laws and its legislated duty to operate as transparently as possible.”
