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LEARN HOW TO BUILD A TEAM SATURDAY Ryan Walter opens second leadership session at Clarke R
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B.C. budget shows spending restrictions
Powerful learning Anita Sparrow and her children Gwen and Devon play with the City Lighting Control Centre interactive display at Stave Falls Power House Sunday afternoon. The annual Heritage Awards, as part of Heritage Week, were held there that day, and you can read about the winners on page nine. For more information about Heritage Week activities, visit www. missioncityrecord. com and click on the Lifestyles tab.
BY TOM FLETCHER Black Press
Tax exemption refused by council BY ADRIAN MACNAIR
There are no ongoing life lease properties in the province that provide permissive tax exemptions ...
Mission Record
– Ken Bjorgaard, director of finance Bjorgaard
council in matters of affordable or low-income housing in the future. Those recommendations passed with a motion from Coun. Larry Nundal that staff review all current properties which currently receive a permissive tax exemption from the district. Director of Finance Ken Bjorgaard said the recommendations were made because Mission’s tax
exemption to the hybrid rentalownership model is unique. “There are no ongoing life lease properties in the province that provide permissive tax exemptions and most of them have not provided any relief on any other fees on life lease projects,” he said. Under DCC legislation any waivers on properties are intended to be for purely rental agreements,
which life-leases clearly are not, he said. Bjorgaard said the issue was complex, since housing can be provided to seniors in both non-profit and for-profit models, making the concept of affordable housing subjective. “From a fairness perspective, is it fair to provide tax relief to lowincome seniors and not to other low-income individuals,” he said. Bjorgaard also noted the property tax system already provides tax relief, since lower valued housing is assessed for lower taxes. “I think there’s a big difference See CONSULT Page 3
The B.C. government is restricting spending increases and keeping its small business income tax alive to meet its balanced budget target before the 2013 election. Finance Minister Kevin Falcon presented his first budget Tuesday, with a deficit of $969 million for the fiscal year starting April 1, as B.C. pays to end the harmonized sales tax. His three-year plan predicts a $154 million surplus in 2013-14 and $250 million surplus the following year. To do that, the budget aims to hold government spending growth down to two per cent for three years, with most of it going to health and education. That leaves most other ministries with little or no increase for inflation, a restriction that is expected to reduce overall B.C. government staff from about 27,000 this year to 25,000 by 2014-15. Falcon also reversed course on business taxes. The government has been promising for years that it would eliminate the small business income tax this spring, after lowering it to the current 2.5 per cent. Now it will continue at 2.5 per cent until B.C.’s financial picture improves. Falcon is also considering a one per cent increase in the general corporate tax rate to 11 per cent, but not for another year depending on financial conditions. The last scheduled carbon tax increase will go ahead on July, from 5.56 cents on a litre of gasoline to 6.67 cents. The budget holds that level while a review of the carbon tax program looks at the rate and offsetting income tax cuts.
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Council voted to refuse a request for tax exemptions and discounts on building charges Monday night, to the dismay of a local seniors’ housing group. The finance department recommended against providing a donation or grant to the Mission Association for Seniors Housing (MASH) to partially offset development cost charges (DCCs) on its life lease housing project just south of Cherry Avenue on Cedar Street. It also recommended the municipality not provide an ongoing tax exemption for that project and that staff develop future policy to guide
THURSDAY, FEB. 23, 2012