S TANDARD TERRACE
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VOL. 27 NO. 48
www.terracestandard.com
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Walmart seeks city taxation refund By JOSH MASSEY AN ONGOING court challenge by Walmart of the assessed property value of its supercentre here has put the City of Terrace into the position of budgeting for a potential refund of taxes already paid by the corporation. The corporation is appealing its 2013 and 2014 assessments but not the one for last year. Assessment values are determined by the B.C.
Assessment Authority, an independent agency, and not by local governments although those values set do have impact when local governments determine the rates to be paid by various property classifications. Walmart’s 2015 tax bill was more than $410,000 with just under $310,000 of that representing municipal taxes. One of the city’s largest property tax payers, Walmart’s 2013 and 2014 tax bills were within the same range.
Should Walmart win its court challenge, the exact amount of any refund is not known. “We have approximately $79,000 set aside but this amount is an estimate and we are awaiting the court decision on this matter,” said city corporate administrator Alisa Thompson in a statement. The potential for a refund has caused the city to adjust downward its anticipated taxation revenues for this year. That dip is ap-
proximately $154,000, from $12.696 million based on provisional figures late last year to $12.542 million now when other adjustments are taken into account. The prospect of a Walmart tax refund is being buffered by a $4 million federal gas tax grant recently announced for a substantial overhaul of the city’s aquatic centre. It is now allowing the city to use money it had already tucked away in a capital reserve for the pool and other
projects for other purposes, says mayor Carol Leclerc. “The gas tax windfall that we got, that was a huge difference,” said Leclerc of the federal money. “[We] built a capital reserve of $150,000 per year, so that was able to come into other programs that we could look at,” she said. “We are still sitting at a comfortable surplus,” said Leclerc, adding that the city budget, which will be finalized this spring, is still one with a zero tax increase.
Walmart opened its store here in 2004 and in late 2014 completed extensive interior renovations to the 112,000 square-foot facility so that it could add a full-service grocery section. Its ranking as one of the city’s largest taxpayers accelerated when the city lost a large sawmill, Skeena Cellulose/Terrace Lumber Company, in the last decade and when Skeena Sawmills was closed for several years late in the last decade and early into this one.
Rally boosts LNG industry By JOSH MASSEY
JACKIE LIEUWEN PHOTO
■ Nailing it down KOREY HUCKSTEAD from Copper Mountain Exteriors, previously Eco Rite Roofing, screws down a new sheet of plywood on the roof of the Anglican church on Lakelse Avenue. Behind him are Terrence Fagen and Robert Elliott. The crew stripped off the original 1990 cedar shingles from the 5,000 square-foot church roof and replaced it with new, lifetime shingles.
IT FORMED an imposing procession heading into Terrace from Thornhill just before noon March 16 – approximately 50 work trucks and construction vehicles including a front-end loader decked out with pro-liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry and jobs signs. One of three rallies timed for that same day with others in Fort St. John and Fort Nelson, the one held in Terrace saw more than 120 people gather at the west side of the Skeena Mall parking lot to present a voice of enthusiasm, or “yes”, to the proposed LNG industry promised for the north. Lucy Praught, an industry and First Nations consultant, was one of several who spoke to the crowd along with Terrace mayor Carol Leclerc, accompanied by three members of her council, and Haisla First Nation chief councillor Ellis Ross from Kitamaat Village. The truck drivers, construction and other trades workers who attended the rally found a voice in Amy Rutter who is a fourth-year apprentice electrician at Northwest Community College and her husband Adam, a sales and branch manager for Premium Truck & Trailer, who spoke at the rally as well. Rutter said she wants to stay here with her whole family. “We can’t stay if there is nowhere for them to work,” she said of her children. “They will leave home and I will never see them again.”
Cont’d Page A4
Pioneers talk
Issue closed
Never give up
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