…the city really needs to start targeting those people that work and live in PG but pay no taxes for services they recieve…illegal renters!

Ahh…illegal suites; the new fluoride. :)

The city needs to drastically reduce it’s work force. That’s the elephant that no one seems to want to deal with.

Fancy garbage trucks, less costs? Please do your homework before making decisions. ( and use the staff you have to complete this task).
So when I pay my bill on time it will now be 10% higher? Or will I be charged the 10% pay on time reduced rate?

The 10% reduction if the bill was paid on time, was introduced because of a potential legal issue.

Offering a reduction does not violate the section 347 of the Criminal Code of Canada which says you cannot charge more than 60% per annum interest. Discounts are not interest.

Charging 5% if you are one day late, most likely does violate the Criminal Code because the annual rate is in excess of 60%–the criminal rate of interest.

If you choose to pay late, the City can legally not give you a discount, but they can’t charge you the interest.

So, this is really just a poor way to hike the utility tax rate by 10%. It’s poor because there is less incentive to pay on time and potentially runs up the City’s costs to collect.

Living outside the city limits is starting to look very attractive! Better yet move out of PG all together. This is looking like a very bad game of SimCity. Move downtown into one of those new condos? Not going to happen.

they must need more spending money for the trip to china. Lay off half the workforce for the city and actually make the other half work and problem solved no more increases needed.

They didn’t mention the big pay raise for mayor, and council. So when is that cat out of the bag?

They didn’t mention the big pay raise for mayor, and council. So when is that cat out of the bag?

They didn’t mention the big pay raise for mayor, and council. So when is that cat out of the bag?

Catch up time for the city and more personal debt for the residents.

Thanks for the clarification Icicle. I agree taking away the incentive to pay early is nothing more than a tax increase.

In addition they probably at one time raised the taxes to a certain level, and then gave us the incentive to make it appear that we were getting a break by paying early. Who the hell knows, they keep moving the targets.

These insidious tax suggestions of course are coming from the finance committee. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Wonder who’s on that committee.

The pay early option was smoke and mirrors anyway, much like the Home Owner Grant. Just an exercise to make you feel good about being ‘paid’ with your own tax money.

“Wonder who’s on that committee.”

Mr. Free Enterprise is the chair ….. notice how he had to use that phrase on far too many occasions last night …. and often he could not get it straight out and stumbled on the words …… LOL…..

“the city really needs to start targeting those people that work and live in PG but pay no taxes for services they recieve…illegal renters”

Illegal or not, the renter is paying money to the owner. The owner pays taxes based on assessed value of the property. If the assessor knows about the “improvements” to a house such as finshing a basement with a kitchen unit included, the assessment will likely increase due to the increased value of the improvments of the land.

If an owner rents out a room to a student for instance, or collects money from a child who has returned home, the same thing holds.

“Internal” money transactions like that cannot be controlled and should play no part in taxation.

If there is a separate hydro connection, gas connection, etc. and a secondary postal address created, it becomes a different story.

Rent collected counts as income.. It is by no means tax free money. In order to be able to collect a reasonable amount of rent a good chunk of money needs to be spent on keeping rental suites in good condition. One bad tenant can cost a home owner a log of money in repairs and renovations. To think that people renting out suites are getting a easy ride is naive. Being a landlord has a lot of risk and requires a lot of work.

Get rid of the illegal suites and you are faced with an affordable housing shortage. If you ever paid attention to council discussions in the past, you would know that is why pg doesn’t shut down illegal suites. It would put too many people out on the street.

Glad to see tunnel vision is alive and well at city hall.
Keep the taxpayer credit card max’d out and if short of funds just raise taxes.
All this from the leader of the group who was going to find 10% savings.
I guess we really can’t find city council at fault. Look what council has accomplished. Crime capital a couple of years running, winner of the BCAA worst roads in BC award, road dust and air pollution exceeding 95% of all cities in Canada, and every spring we get to drive on pot hole filled streets. What more can we ask for?

Resident don’t forget a Core Review that wouldn’t be needed if we had a redsponsable and accountable council mayor and council to look after the purse of THE TAX PAYER.

Resident: Don’t blame our mayorette. Think of all the voters that put her into the position.

When will this council ever get someone on it that actually views the position of handling other people’s money as a trust to which they should be most careful?

The Americans had a revolution because of their refusal to pay taxes without having representation.

Nothing much has changed in over 200 years.