VOTE JOHN DACOMBE FOR COURTENAY COUNCIL

Business

Local government’s job is to regulate and incentivize the private sector, not replace it.

Having a culture of law and order with strongly enforced laws and bylaws, strict permitting and approvals deadlines, and reasonable tax rates is necessary for business success.

Regulatory vagueness and long delays in permits and approvals spells disaster for small, local businesses.

I will introduce a motion in the first 100 days to clearly lay out the maximum allowable wait times for all City-issued permits and approvals.

I also do not support recent changes to business license costs, which significantly lowered license fees for large foreign-owned retailers. Food trucks and small, locally-owned retail stores should not be paying 70% ($450) of what American big box stores are paying ($650). Locally-owned neighbourhood pubs should not be paying 150% ($1000) of what American big box stores are paying.

I will introduce a motion within the first 100 days to return license fees to previous rates, and to determine how the City can charge foreign-owned big box retailers appropriate business license fees, while charging locally owned businesses even lower fees.

Is “expanding the commercial tax base” a realistic solution to tax increases?

Some candidates are promoting a vague “expansion of the commercial tax base” to offset property taxes. As with most things, the devil is in the details.

Where will new commercial be located? If it is in brownfield sites (think the Puntledge Road area), it is good. If it is on ALR, it is bad.

Will local taxpayers be subsidizing these enterprises? Will the recent, existing OCP and zoning be amended to allow these enterprises?

How long will it take for this expanded commercial tax base to make a noticeable difference in City revenues, if ever?

The commercial property tax rate is three to four times that of the residential rate. Instead of vague slogans about expanding the commercial tax base, we need to reduce the commercial tax rate to incentivize existing commercial enterprises and draw in new ones.

In short, stop looking for silver bullets of new tax money, and start finding real solutions, which must include reducing the tax burden on all municipal taxpayers.