This is a great idea, give business owners the right to vote twice. What a bunch of crap!!!! Do you feel special today???

Read it again Randy, they only get one vote.

No, Billy, assuming they live in the same jurisdiction, they do get two votes.
And yes it is complete crap. Owning a business is not tantamount to possessing a second personhood or make your business the equivalent to an actual person in a jurisdiction you make money from but choose not to live in.

Actually billyinpg, Randy has it right. The business owner would get one vote as an individual and a 2nd vote as a business owner…… that is total BS.

If I owned 1 house to live in and 1 house to rent out as an investment should I not get 2 votes….? I pay more property taxes than the person that only owns 1 home. This is the same argument that the chamber is making.
I think they need to get their heads out of the clouds and realize that democracy is for the people not corporations…..

I wonder how many people at the chamber have voiced their concerns. I remember reading another story a month or so ago and they had 5 people respond to a survey and were making predictions from it…..YIKES.

1 person, 1 vote……simple. No playing favourites…..

But just a business vote if the business belongs to the chamber, right?
That way the go pg candidates could stay in power forever.

They only get a business vote if the owner DOES NOTreaide in the municipality. So if you live inside city limits, you get to vote as an individual and not as an owner. If you live outside city limits, you vote as a business but not as an individual. Businesses pay taxes so the idea is to give them representation if the owner lives outside of the taxing jurisdiction. It’s very simple, and I support it.

People actually pay money to be a part of this organization? That is exceedingly dumb. So, if I own 5 businesses, do I then get six votes? Almost every opinion this silly outfit issues I find offensive. Makes one wonder exactly who is influencing their politics.

Here is an idea, how about an end to tax writeoffs for businesses that form self-advocacy groups to lobby for the peoples tax dollars for themselves. I’m sick and tired of these bozos using our money against us and we foot the bill for it. End special interest lobbying!

We already have votes for non-resident owners of real property. I wonder what percentage of non-resident business owners do not own the land on which their business is located?

Randy1956 is right in that the old business vote was in addition to the vote the owner had as a resident. New legislation could of course be different and work like the property-owner vote, which is only available to non-residents. The problem is, in the case of a corporation, where does it “reside”? How do you decide whether a corporation is a resident? In the case of businesses owned by a single individual we could go by that individual’s residence, but what about a partnership of several people, or a publicly held company?

In any case, I wonder whether it is really true that businesses don’t have enough say in local politics. While they don’t have a vote, they have a lot of influence through organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce and the DBIA, and through the money that they can spend promoting their positions.

If I live in the regional district but own a house in the city would I get to vote for the mayor and council? Or would it be just a business or would you have to have a minimum level of money invested within city limits?

If the business is a ‘limited company’ it used to be able to nominate one of its members to vote on its behalf in municipal elections if it held taxable real property in the business’s name in that municipality. This is only fair, since that corporation pays taxes on that property to the municipality, and now, (since 1993) has no means of official elected representation.

If we’re to persist in the farce that those we elect actually control ‘policy’ ~ (which they very clearly do not ~ for how many times have you heard someone you elect, at any level of government, say after they’re elected and safely ensconsed in their new and now well paid job, “I know I promised to get you this or that, but we simply don’t have the money”? Which can only mean that those who DO “..have the money” are calling the shots. And when the order of things is NOT, as we suppose, ‘tax and spend’, but actually ‘BORROW, spend and tax’, we might just want to ask just WHO does “… have the money”. For it most certainly is NOT, to any initial degree, ‘borrowed’ from me or thee.)~ then what’s the harm in carrying the pretense a little further?

So who elected Green for Mayor? Where did she get the $80,000.00 election fund from? Did anyone ever check where all thr money came from? You guested it . The Chamber of Commerce members and the business community.
Cheers.

I am a business owner and own property in the downtown (that pays very high taxes) and I DO NOT believe that I should get 2 votes in any election. Business has other means to lobby local government and they often have more influence as a group than the average citizen does. I am also a home owner and it frustrates the hell out of me when my neighborhood concerns are not addressed.

I do not agree with this proposal as I believe the Chamber of Commerce and business interests already have plenty of clout in City Hall or in Provincial/Federal Politics. The C of C and groups like them have dozens of paid lobbyists who have the ear of politicians in ways that no average citizen has.

If individual businesses get to vote, there will be no purpose in democracy whatsoever. Maybe the Chamber should work on things like getting businesses to relocate to Prince George instead of their version of world building

It is not one additional vote for business owner, it is one additional vote for each community in which they own a business, so that could amount to 30-40 additional votes throughout the province.

It would seem to me that bigger issue is, you don’t have to live in an area to run for council, or MP for that matter. Just have to be a resident of B.C. As a business owner, if I really want to effect change, it would be better to run for council – even if I don’t live here – or – donate to someone who is running for council policies are akin to mine. Seems wrong that you can sit on local government and make decisions for a place you don’t even live in, so the business vote is far down the list of things that don’t make sense.

On a federal level/provincial leve, if the party leader doesn’t like who the riding association nominates, they can parachute anyone they want into your community to represent you, even though they may live nowhere near you. That seems the greater injustice.

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” – George Orwell (Animal Farm)

This is just dumb. It should be one vote for every human being who is eligible to vote. End of story.

Pretending that businesses don’t have a vote is silly, since the owners or shareholders of those businesses will already have that right. Through their votes they get the same opportunity to influence policy as everyone else.

As for being able to vote if you don’t live in the city? More nonsense. If you want the ability to influence what happens within a community, then move your butt to that community and live there.

I had some time to think about this some more, and correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it’s a non issue. If a business owner resides in Prince George he/she has the right to vote. If a business owner owns property in Prince George, he/she has the right to vote. If a business owner does not reside in Prince George and does not own property in Prince George, they pay no property taxes and do not have the right to vote. Am I missing something?

Sine Nomine says

“Here is an idea, how about an end to tax writeoffs for businesses that form self-advocacy groups to lobby for the peoples tax dollars for themselves. I’m sick and tired of these bozos using our money against us and we foot the bill for it. End special interest lobbying!”

I assume then that you advocate against tax deductability of union dues and Union donations for political purposes?

Here is some info taken from the webpage of the BC Chamber of Commerce on the proposal. To me, it’s quite clear that they are advocating a system where an individual could get two votes. Heck, they even acknowledge that possibility in the last sentence of what I posted.

“A Fair, workable model

During the consultation phase the Chamber partnered with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and the Business Council of BC, in close consultation with key Ministry staff, to design a system for a business vote. This model included a set of principles that would define the business vote. These were;

the business must have a business number issued by Canada Revenue Agency

the business must have a non-residential real property address

the business must be paying a business class property tax

the business must appoint a designated proxy to vote on its behalf

a registered business voter may only be registered to vote for one business in a given municipality

The Chamber believes this model constitutes fairness among businesses.

In short, a legitimate business physically located within a municipality paying business property tax would be eligible for a vote.

This system would require coordination between existing Canada Revenue Agency and BC Assessment Authority databases. This list, which would be maintained by the province, would then simply require a designated voter for the business.

The issue of equity, often described as one person one vote, is problematic as a business vote will likely mean that one individual could be awarded the opportunity to vote more than once in a municipal election.”

There is more info on their website if you do a search. I’d post the link but I don’t think they are allowed. I think the proposal is just plain goofy.

IMHO, the simple fact that you start a business (as defined by the BC Chamber of Commerce . . . a special interest group), should not give you a greater say in the outcome of our democracy. It’s a complete hijack of the system if there ever was one.

You guess right dow7501, I don’t think people should get a tax exemption for paying union dues and unions in particular should not get tax deductions when contributing to political parties. I view that as an abuse of the public purse. I don’t think “think” tanks should get not for profit status. If people want to invest in these organizations, fill your boots, but don’t expect the common man to pay for it, especially when you use it to advocate for yourself at the expense of them. If companies spent half as much on being innovative and progressive, that they did on greasing already slimy palms, they’d have nothing to worry about.

The only people in our society I would advocate having special lobbying privileges would be those, that by their very nature, cannot advocate for themselves; children, mentally & physically handicapped, etc.. However, in a properly functioning society, we wouldn’t need to lobby for these things, we’d just take care of them naturally like families do. The only purpose of a centralized government is to advocate and protect its citizens. That seems to happen less and less these days, because the squeaky wheel gets the grease and corporate lobbying groups are squeaking the loudest these days.

Neo Liberalism doesn’t work, because it’s not sustainable and this type of policy issues from that type of political mindset that seeks to increase wealth ever upwards. Well, that’s not working anymore, and we’re very near a tipping point that will be quite uncomfortable to overcome.

“PG Chamber Supports Voting Rights for Businesses”

Of course they are, they’re getting paid too!

Any business owner who lives in the city. Listen up. ONE VOTE.Period.