In PG what company would even begin to think of locating here for major industrial development. It is common knowledge that the PG air-shed is already compromised. Any new entrant would be akin to trying to find a way onto an already overcrowded bus.

PG will only develop beyond its current industrial base if it has accessible land outside of the city air-shed regardless of any taxation levels. PG bureaucracy has an empire building mentality that fears losing any taxation or authority, and so our city council figures to invest in industrial land infrastructure in the city air-shed rather than sites removed from the city air-shed. Current planning is very short sighted driven by the bureaucrats interests and not actual industrial potential.

Two things that I think we need are industrial infrastructure outside of the city air-shed, and the other thing I think all municipalities and regional districts should have is taxation authority on all revenue collected from energy taxation.

IMO all gas taxes, carbon taxes, and energy taxes should be the source of municipal and regional district funding... and this should replace property taxes all together. With rising interest rates on the horizon it may well be the only policy that can maintain property values and thus the equity base required for our economy to function at current debt levels. (ie interest costs will soon choke out property tax margins). Energy taxation authority (devolved from the province and feds) would be a consumption and not a savings based tax and it would be shared by everyone in the community from industry, to home owners, to renters, and thus all voters will have a direct connection to the taxation regime in place and not just those held hostage to their homes and business.

With all the new taxes that have been and are being rammed down our throats these days I guarantee we see major tax reductions for the corporations.

If Corpotate municipal taxes are reduced your home taxes will rise...

The HST is coming at you..35% hydro increses coming at you..Teresan rates going up..

And lowering municipal taxes won`t make industry anymore viable, china pays workers 2 dollars per day without pensions,EI,WCB..

And then industry will negotiate wages down or threaten to leave...

I say,let them leave,let them go to China,time for small local opertators and cash deals.

If big business wants to operate in a civilized society then they have to pay, if they want to go to China let them, the race to the bottom, remember people, no matter how low we go,China can go lower.

The bottom line is this, we will never be able to compete with Chinese labour,never,so there is no point in trying.

Except..If industry goes 100% automated without employees, and if that happens,what is the point of having that industry in BC.

We are at crossroads, what do you want, stay civilized or turn into a two class society..Wealth and peasents.

Not on my watch.

So you want industry to leave PG? I can only assume then that you are rich and have no other need for income beyond this point. Its either that or you do not follow the money trail from industry down?

Grant G is absolutely correct.

The truth of the matter is that when you look at the overall tax "pie" that is taken in by governments, more and more of that pie is being funded by individuals and less and less is being funded by corporations. HST is a perfect example. Prior to its implementation, corporations paid a significant amount of PST to Provincial coffers in BC. After implementation they will pay none because any HST they pay will be fully refundable to them. Now, this IS fantastic tax policy when it comes to looking out for business interests, but it comes at a price. That price is that fact that individuals must make up the difference OR services need to be reduced to account for the fact that less money is coming in. In theory, some of it could come back in corporate incomes taxes but it's still nowhere near what they will save.

Now, when it comes to the fear that industry will leave PG, the thing you need to recognize is that they will only leave if the present value of their future incremental tax savings by leaving (meaning the amount of property taxes saved by moving) are greater than the costs related to moving. This is relatively straight forward capital budgeting/cost benefit analysis theory. Hypothetically speaking, if they were to save $500,000 a year in taxes for the next 30 years by moving (which is very generous in my eye given that I don't think the pulp mills will even be around then) and their required rate of return is 10%, that means that the current value of those tax savings is a little over 4.7 million dollars. That means that if it cost them 4.7 million or less to tear down the mill, pack up and set it up somewhere else, it would be to their long-term advantage. If it cost them more than that, it wouldn't be. I haven't a clue what it would cost to move a mill, but I'd guess it's closer to 50 million than 4.7. This analysis doesn't even take into account the fact that there are unique benefits to being situated here (easy access to all highway networks, rail lines, established workforce, etc.). People also forget that operations like a pulp mill are not exactly an IT development company and there is signficant negative goodwill with bringing a heavy polluting industry to a city. Many places wouldn't even want them.

I don't think there is person alive that could make a reasoned case for moving an already established mill based solely on future property tax savings. Truth be told, property taxes are an immaterial line item on their income statements. The crying about the property taxes is a bluff and nothing more than a way to try and cut costs (and increase returns for shareholders) at the ultimate expense of the community they operate in. They've already won the lottery with HST, now they are expecting us to take them out for dinner as well.

There used to be a time when "corporate responsibility" was taught in business schools and it actually meant something. Many (perhaps even most) big corporations of today don't care about such things. They will pollute with reckless abandon, they could care less about how their operations impact the communities they reside in and they will act in a purely selfish manner when it comes to maximizing their profits at the expense of other people in society.

I think the time has come where people and governments have to start saying "enough is enough". It's one thing to have a business friendly climate and to encourage investment (and we definitely SHOULD be doing that), it's quite another to completely hand the keys over and allow US (meaning our society as a whole) to be dictated to by organizations that have no motive other than their own self greed.

Do not worry about possible increased taxes. With mayor Dan Rigers as part of the task force they will never be able to make a decision!