The Supreme Court of Canada dismissed an appeal Friday by a
paper-making company over the property taxes assessed by a B.C.
community against one of its mills. The court sided with North Cowichan District on Vancouver Island in a
tax dispute with Catalyst Paper Corp. which had argued its taxes were
too high because they bore no relationship to the municipal services it
actually used. In a unanimous 7-0 decision, the high court rejected the company's
argument, saying the community tax bylaw was not unreasonable and that
municipalities can apply different tax rates to different kinds of
property. "I conclude that the power of the courts to set aside municipal
bylaws is a narrow one and cannot be exercised simply because a bylaw
imposes a greater share of the tax burden on some ratepayers than on
others," Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin wrote in the decision. McLachlin wrote that courts reviewing bylaws for reasonableness must
consider the wide variety of factors municipal councillors may face. "Only if the bylaw is one no reasonable body informed by these factors could have taken will the bylaw be set aside," she said.
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