Looking Good Nanaimo
Voice over Children’s show
2014
Looking Good
Well dressed:up
comes to life at the Port Theatre.
NANAIMO
Leon Drzewiecki sets his menswear shop on Commercial Street
Proposed theatre expansion caters to emerging artists
INSIDE
PAGE 19
Real estate company goes into restaurant business
SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT
www.nanaimobulletin.com
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2014
Lantzville denies tax exemption to private school
Directors see pay adjusted BY KARL YU
THE NEWS BULLETIN
The Regional District of Nanaimo board of directors passed bylaws ahead of the municipal election that will increase director compensation in the next term. All directors will see their base remuneration rate of $11,855 a year increased in line with the Consumer Price Index starting the first board meeting after the Nov. 15 election. The board chairperson will receive an additional $19,500 annually while electoral area directors will receive an additional $10,985 a year with no price index adjustment this year. Base remuneration will cover up to four regularly scheduled meetings and up to one additional information seminar a month, according to the regional district. The board vicechairperson will receive $160 per meeting when substituting for the chairperson and committee chairpersons will receive $110 for every meeting chaired. See ‘DIRECTOR’ /3
VOL. 26, NO. 44
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DISTRICT ONLY municipality to deny break to institution. BY TAMARA CUNNINGHAM THE NEWS BULLETIN
KARL YU/THE NEWS BULLETIN
Catch of the day
Jackson Tonsi shows off some of the crabs he caught at Swy-a-lana Lagoon fishing pier on Friday with his family.
Lantzville officials have voted to tax Aspengrove School in what is being called the most extreme position taken by a B.C. municipality. Lantzville council has denied Aspengrove a tax exemption next year, with opponents arguing the school isn’t in dire straits and residents shouldn’t subsidize a private school. It’s the second time Lantzville council has called into question a permissive tax exemption for the institution, but the first time it will charge the school in full. Last year it settled on waiving more than half the land tax. Aspengrove school executives had wanted to see a 100 per cent permissive tax exemption – or about $6,000 taken off their bill – and say they are disappointed by the decision not to give them any break at all. The decision will see the school pay an estimated $17,000 in property taxes next year, which will have a “huge impact” on the school’s ability to provide programming to students, says Iain McIver, a director on the Aspengrove school board. It will also make the school the only institution in B.C. not
“
This could be the thin edge of the wedge where independent schools are incurring costs where they shouldn’t.
to receive a tax break, according to the Federation of Independent School Associations B.C. Since 2012, four municipalities have considered removing permissive tax exemptions for independent schools but two have now granted the requests and another, the City of Victoria, has opted to reduce its exemption by five per cent a year to a maximum of 50 per cent, said the federation’s B.C. executive director Peter Froese, adding Lantzville is “definitely taking the most extreme position of any municipality in British Columbia.” The federation is lobbying the province to take permissive tax exemptions for independent schools out of the hands of local government but Froese said Lantzville’s decision is worrisome. See ‘PRIVATE’ /7
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