The Vancouver Province
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Page: A42
Section: Money
Byline: Wendy Mclellan
Victoria parks stall tax; Business group wins repeal of reviled TransLink levy
If they've got parking stalls, they're celebrating today.
By 6.p.m., the B.C. government is expected to officially scrap TransLink's parking tax levied against businesses in the Lower Mainland for the past two years and the target of a co-ordinated hate campaign since before it was even introduced.
"It's nice to go up against the proverbial city hall and win," said a jubilant Laura Jones, western vice-president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and one of the leaders of the campaign to "Park the Tax."
The stall tax, added to business property-tax bills in 2006 and 2007, was supposed to raise about $17 million a year to help pay for TransLink's $1.9-billion plan to upgrade roads and transit over the next three years.
Businesses were taxed by square metre of parking area, but the calculations sometimes included laneways, loading zones and bike racks and enraged small-business owners faced with an additional tax bill of about $1,200 each.
Business owners rallied, sent thousands of faxes and letters, signed petitions and marched on TransLink board meetings over the tax and, although the government agreed last spring to kill the parking tax as part of sweeping changes to the region's transit authority, Jones said business owners were not prepared to celebrate until the politicians made it official.
"We weren't going to back down until it was done," she said. "Now we know it's a done deal, and I'm breathing a big sigh of relief -- how often do you get to celebrate killing a tax?"
But it will be a brief celebration, Jones said. The organization is already ramping up to fight another battle for small business over the property taxes levied against businesses compared to residential properties. There's also the fight for compensation for businesses affected by the Canada Line construction.
"There's still a lot of work to do," she said. "There's not a lot of time to relax.
Meanwhile, TransLink still needs revenue for roads and transit upgrades and will replace the parking tax with an increase in property taxes across a wider range of taxpayers, spreading the cost to all commercial, industrial and utility property classes in the region.
wmclellan@png.canwest.com |
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