City staff recommend no changes to yearly Vacant Unit Tax declaration for Ottawa homeowners

The sign outside City Hall in Ottawa (CTV News Ottawa)

Ottawa homeowners will be required to continue filling out the Vacant Unit Tax declaration form every year, with staff saying shifting it to every three or five years would “likely cause considerable frustration each time.”

The City of Ottawa introduced the Vacant Unit Tax in 2023, requiring property owners to declare their property status by mid-March each year.

Coun. Tim Tierney asked staff if the city could explore “better options for repeat registrants, like a one-time registration that carries over for multiple years.”

In response to Tierney’s inquiry, presented to the finance and corporate services committee on Tuesday, staff said the declaration process has “undergone significant improvements” since the launch of the Vacant Unit Tax program, and the process now takes “less than one minute for most residents” to complete the form.

“Alternatives such as periodic declarations every three or five years would likely cause considerable frustration each time, similar to the experience seen during the 2023 program launch,” Cyril Rogers, Ottawa’s Chief Financial Officer, said in response.

“Alternatives to the annual declaration requirement must carefully consider the fact that property circumstances can change year over year, including tenancy, permitted occupants, ownership, or short-term rental use.”

Rogers calls the annual declaration a “core requirement” of the Vacant Unit Tax program, saying it is “essential to ensuring the tax is applied accurately, consistently, and fairly across all eligible properties.”

“Staff will continue to report on annual declaration statistics and conduct comprehensive reviews as more years of data become available to identify ways to streamline the process,” Rogers said.

“This ongoing evaluation may include exploring targeted approaches, such as reduced declaration requirements for specific groups, provided the integrity, fairness, accuracy, and legislative compliance of the Vacant Unit Tax (VUT) program are maintained.”

Some councillors and residents have raised concerns about the Vacant Unit Tax since the City of Ottawa implemented it in 2023. The tax was introduced to discourage homeowners with multiple properties from leaving them vacant, with any money used to support affordable housing projects.

City staff say over 97.5 per cent of all residential properties now have an email on file with the city for the Vacant Unit Tax registration, reducing the number of mailings being sent out.

The city issued 225,000 mailings over the Vacant Unit Tax in 2023 and 81,000 in 2025.

Emails on file with the City of Ottawa

With the city having email addresses for 327,000 residential properties on file, Tierney also asked if the city could use the addresses to inform people about natural disasters, emergencies and other city service communications.

However, staff say since the email addresses collected through the Vacant Unit Tax fall under the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, the emails can only be used for the purpose it was collected for.

“In order to repurpose personal information that has already been collected, the City must obtain express consent from those individuals. For future collections of personal information, the city would need to provide a notice of collection that outlines the additional purposes of use, including providing residents with the ability to opt in to receiving such additional communications,” Rogers said.

“To support this, Revenue Services will work with the Privacy Office and Legal Services with the aim of deploying an expanded notice of collection for the 2027 declaration cycle.”

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