Prince Rupert Tax Burden

Prince Rupert has one of the highest taxation rates in the province of British Columbia, with our population decline over the last decade, that burden of taxation has fallen on a smaller portion of the tax paying population.

As a candidate do you believe that the current tax rate burden for citizens is acceptable?

Would you change the residential and/or commercial rate and by how much?

If you believe that the tax burden is too high for the population base, what would you recommend the city do to reduce that burden on its citizens?

Theresa

our tax base is off the wall, we pay 500, monthly, found it interesting, city staff receiving 4.5% increases, taxes increase is 4.5%—seriously, who recieves this kind of wage increase when we see huge poverty issues, fewer people owing homes, lots of unemployment? I thought that there was some profit sharing happening with the casino, that has yet to be seen-who will carry the taxes once all of our generation retires(baby boomers) what then? With all the announcements of the port expansion and how well RTI is doing, why is the money not recyling in PR-small business have to charge an arm and a leg to make a profit because of taxes—must be a lot of ppl working here and not local, thus all money taken out of the community?
Christo Holmes

Hello Teresa…we do pay an ostensibly high amount of taxes compared to other towns..
We have a population of …say 13,000…but we enjoy the amenities and services that many North American cities of 50,000 to 100,000 people do not possess…but we again have a relatively tiny population to support all the costs associated with these amenities,services,necessary infrastructure etc….my quality of life is much enhanced by living in Prince Rupert as I exploit the many wonderful things available to me…the aquatic centre,golf course,performing arts centre,terrific landscaping,the ability to have any problems dealing with city operations dealt with in a timely way…and I can afford my tax bill and do not begrudge it…sadly many others find it onerous…of course we all hope to receive increased revenues from growing industrial and business presence and
senior government grants , transfers,infrastructure programs but in the meantime we cannot escape the fact that our tiny population means that we have a small tax base to raise the necessary revenue to support and enhance our city’s desires and needs…
Re: city staff increases…we need to retain our quality staff and competitive wages are a way to do it….city workers went for many,many years with no raises at all,have been very sympathetic to state of city finances,and in my opinion are well worth being better
compensated now…
Christo Holmes

Theresa….please accept my apology for mis-spelling your name…Sorry…
Dwhite

Thank you for pointing out some of the benefits of living in Rupert. At the federal level many Canadians might say that tax money spent on a long gun registry or fighter jets could have been better spent on other things. At the provincial level, some may say that money for a stadium roof or a convention centre could have been better spent on other things. I am not certain that there is any single item in our municipal budget where we can say the same. Our taxes may be high, but I don’t think that they can be cut without some services cuts or lost amenities resulting. Certainly that makes it tough on council.

Increasing our tax base and insisting on more grants from senior levels appear to be the best course of action.

Doing those things however is not easy either.

Personally, this is the issue that I find the most important for the next council. I have not reached the point where I am angry about the taxes I pay, but I am worried that we will be reaching a point where the city will not be able to maintain what we have with the tax base available.
Farley Stewart

We need to do our best to keep taxes where they are now. It would be nice to lower them but at what cost in services, I like a lot of the services we deliver. It certainly a catch 22 and somthing has to give if we don’t find a balance soon.
I think we need to take a leadership role and think progressively and be agressive and bring new business and industry to town.
We need to support our existing businesses and industry so that they have success. We need to find out what are we doing right for them (and promote what we are doing right) and find out what we can improve on and develop a plan that shows the world we are open for buisness and here is how our City we will help you succeed.
http://www.votejenrice.com Jennifer Rice

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZKIckW1UlE

Here’s my response on youtube at the all candidates forum regarding this issue. Please also go to:

http://votejenrice.com/all-candidates-video-recordings to watch the entire forum online.

Unfortunately, the current tax rate is becoming increasingly challenging for many Prince Rupert citizens to afford. I do believe council should work hard to relieve the tax burden on residents. This would require an in depth look at evaluating our city’s needs and prioritizing items and services. Ideally, this wouldn’t mean too many compromises that cause hardship. Without compromising services, I do not propose to reduce taxes at this time. That’s not to say I feel the alternative is to automatically increase taxes either.

I think we need to keep in mind that Prince Rupert is not only a small community but we are also a remote community and that poses some costly challenges based on our geography. It would be unrealistic to compare similar communities of our size because we do not have the benefit of leveraging off a larger, nearby city centre. We are a small community at the end of a long road situated on the edge of the continent and the Pacific ocean. Our geographic situation poses some costly challenges such as affording an off-location airport.

Two suggestions are to build a sustainable fiscal base by lobbying higher levels of government for an improved municipal funding formula. We also need to lobby higher levels of government for a fairer system of infrastructure funding.

Presently about eight cents of every federal tax dollar goes to municipalities. This is no longer enough to support the increasing responsibilities downloaded onto municipalities. It is unrealistic with Prince Rupert’s population to continuously raise property taxes to maintain city services. I believe all municipalities should work together and lobby for increased transfer payments or improved funding programs to relieve this burden.

Current funding programs require municipalities to match up to half the costs of infrastructure projects. For cash-strapped communities such as Prince Rupert, this means much needed infrastructure projects go unbuilt while larger communities with higher revenues get shovel-ready projects off the ground. This archaic system favours larger cities and leaves smaller ones out in the cold. I would lobby for a revamped system that is equitable and inclusive of small communities such as Prince Rupert.

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Prince Rupert Tax Burden

Skeena Institute