S TANDARD TERRACE
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VOL. 26 NO. 44
www.terracestandard.com
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Mayor wants landlords to ease up By ANNA KILLEN Just because you can rent out your basement suite for $2,500, doesn’t necessarily mean you should. That’s the word from Terrace mayor Dave Pernarowski, who, along with other members of Terrace city council, have been speaking with residents who are increasingly anxious about either finding a place
to live or coping with rising costs amidst an increasingly tight rental market. “Taking advantage of a strong economy market is one thing, but setting rental prices that are negatively affecting our community and makes us appear to be greedy and insensitive is a problem,” wrote Pernarowski in a response to a local resident lamenting the area’s skyrocking rents on the mayor’s
public Facebook group. Expanding on his comments later, Pernarowski acknowledged that “it’s a fine balance and a bit of a tough statement, because certainly I understand market conditions, and when the market was tough in Terrace, those landlords were not, in a lot of cases, seeing any renters at all and were certainly charging dollars that were a lot lower.
“Market conditions would allow them to upgrade their units and charge more money but it just seems to me that there are some, I’ll say, that perhaps are taking advantage of a situation,” he continued, emphasizing that’s not the case for all landlords. “And you know, I think that we could probably do much better as a community if we were to ensure
that we’ve got appropriately priced rental units in place so that everybody’s able to afford to continue to live in the community.” The city has encouraged more housing through bylaws aimed at a variety of suites and new developments and has been trying to encourage developers to build accommodation containing both market rental housing and housing meant
for lower income earners. Pernarowski is confident that there will be a fair amount of construction happening this summer that will add to the housing stock. “I think we’re going to see this as a short-term situation,” he said of the housing crunch. “Once a few of these developments are built we’ll see the market start to even out.”
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Tax lack troubling, says MLA
MARGARET SPEIRS PHOTO
■■ Morning at the lake centennial christian School students left classes and took to the ice at Lakelse Lake for a game of hockey or just skating around Feb. 6. It’s the first time for the whole school – in the past, individual classes or grades have gone skating. School staff were out at the lake the week before to ensure the ice was thick enough. Despite the heavy wind in town, it was calm and about -13 C at the lake.
THE provincial government’s announcement that its liquefied natural gas (LNG) tax plan won’t be ready this month is a sign of trouble, says Skeena NDP MLA Robin Austin. Lack of a tax plan delays the ability of companies to make investment decisions and further pushes back Liberal promises of revenues to come from the tax, he said. “First it was to be last fall, then by the end of the year, then this February and now they say it won’t be ready until the fall,” Austin said. “And this is the tax that is supposed to pay off the [provincial] debt, create that prosperity fund, pay for the carbon to come from the industry and also to compensate First Nations for pipelines going across their territory and still be among the lowest and most competitive [LNG] taxes in the world. “Clearly, Christy Clark has really oversold this and now she’s in trouble,” said Austin, adding the premier keeps repeating how much money the province will reap. “She’s caught up in her own rhetoric,” he said.
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On your table
Made in Terrace
To the games
Society looking to sign up people interested in weekly fresh produce \COMMUNITY A11
What would a deal with Chinese manufacturers mean for our economy? \NEWS A5
Nine ringette players are heading to the BC Winter Games this month \SPORTS A28