Session Title: 7 Property Taxes
Convenor:Jim Campbell
Note taker: Dawn Wood
Participants: Lorne Underwood
Summary of discussions: The issue is that property taxes are a source of revenue, limited by government action, for various purposes – depended on by many. E.g. on Saturna, the Parks & Rec Commission, the library & the Fire Protection Society.
When many volunteers are helping to raise money for a service or project and aren’t making enough money to cover costs (e.g. the Rec Centre) then property taxes can be used to support this. This would mean part-time residents contribute to the facility’s operational expenses.
Lorne shared that in Saanich, the Tsawout people worked with a developer to establish a “development cost charge” – to be paid by the consumer/purchaser – and a “cultural cost charge” – to go to the native people whose traditional land base it was – of .25%. A trust or non-profit organization needs to be established to hold the funds.
We might be able to establish a “community cost charge” for any new buildings/developments which could be targeted to the benefit of community facilities.
Islands Trust has changed its mandate from “preserving & protecting the unique amenity of the Gulf Islands” to protecting the rights of entrepreneurs.
N. Pender’s new OCP has a clause that speaks to these issues (see current Island Tides.)
The American owner of James Island has recently been given increased density that will allow development on ancestral lands, though the native claim has not been properly registered.
Ida Chong & the provincial govt as well as the Regional District are supportive of the concept of “community cost charges” that enable cultural projects. These cost charges are to be held & collected in perpetuity by such organizations as local historical societies.
Which local government body could assume this responsibility to authorize the collection of such charges?
A process of inquiry should be initiated.
Another option suggested by Lorne was that of finding patrons to assume operational costs of facilities for 5-year periods. Shell Oil approached the Tsawout nation willing to pay $1 million for them not to log the Saturna reserve lands – in order to get carbon credits. A follow-up request was permission to drill offshore for oil & gas!
The Salish Sea initiative will allow mineral extraction from Park lands – the concept of park lands being sacred is lost.
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