PENINSULA
NEWS REVIEW
A cautionary tale
Hardware for the players
Cooking with oil gets dangerous for a family on East Saanich Road on Sunday, page 7
Josh Adkins and Stephen Heslop received the Peninsula Panthers’ most valuable player award, page 13
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Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Steven Heywood/News staff
B.C. Aviation Museum President Stephen Gordon stands in the main display area of the museum at the Victoria International Airport. The museum hosts aviation industry businesses, educators and interested students at their second career day this Saturday. See the story on page three.
Sidney mulls a hike to its industry tax rate Town currently one of the lowest light industrial tax jurisdictions in B.C. Steven Heywood News staff
Ten light industrial properties in the West Sidney industrial area are facing higher taxes if the municipality can successfully change their tax rate. On the bright side, it could take as long as two years before the rate hike could come into effect.
Citing an imbalance between the class five (light industrial) rate and those of class six properties (business), Town of Sidney staff are recommending a shift towards bringing those two rates closer together. Had class five properties been taxed at the class six rate, according to a staff report, the town would have brought in an additional $79,500 in 2012.
“This would have allowed us to reduce the general tax increase that was applied to all property classes,” stated director of corporate services Andrew Hicik in a Jan. 29 report to council. He cites a combination of provincial tax credits, rate adjusting and no clear town policy for creating the imbalance. “We need to have a strong econ-
omy and you can’t tax your way into that,” said Councillor Marilyn Loveless at council’s Feb. 4 meeting. She was, however, speaking in favour of the tax rate standardization plan. Loveless noted the town has had its own costs increased in recent years and any reduction in taxes would mean a loss of some services.
“We need to have a hard look at where the town and its residents can get the best value for their tax dollars.” Coun. Tim Chad added there’s a clear difference between the class five and six tax rates and said he’s convinced there needs to be a change. PLEASE SEE: Industrial tax rate, page 4