Stephen Thomson Black Press May 12:
Al Siebring has accused his fellow North Cowichan council members of “caving in” to pressure from Catalyst Paper on industrial property taxes. Siebring made the comment during a discussion of the 2009 budget, which will see residents absorb $850,000 of the tax burden that would have mostly been paid by the Crofton-based pulp mill. The owner of an average home, assessed at $330,000, will pay an extra $44 because of the shift. Tax for major industry will drop to $6.6 million from $7.4 million last year. Siebring took issue with Catalyst for arguing its tax bill should be reduced by millions on the grounds the company has limited need for municipal services. He described the idea as “tax anarchy.” Catalyst announced it will withhold around $5 million in property taxes this year and wants council to change the Crofton mill’s tax rate to reflect that. North Cowichan has not calculated the potential loss of revenue into its new financial plan.
“This has been in some sense a big game of municipal chicken. The question all along was who was going to blink first? Well I’m not going to blink, not on these kinds of demands,” Siebring said. Coun. John Koury took offense at Siebring’s comments and suggested the council members were not being respected. He interrupted Siebring to complain the speech was not relevant to the impending vote to give the budget and tax shift preliminary approval. “We shouldn’t be bullied by one of our councillors,” Koury said. Siebring supported shifting taxes onto residents from heavy industry, but said he is only doing so because tax reapportionment has been on the council agenda for several years. Richard Garneau, president and CEO of Catalyst, has asked for the Crofton mill’s tax rate to be based mainly on the use of municipal services. “Reducing the municipal tax cost is a key step to return Catalyst to financial health,” reads an April 27 letter he wrote to mayor and council. Council gave the financial plan final approval last week.
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