WL to lose $3.5 million in assessment from Creekside property

Courtesy of  the City of Williams Lake:

After the recent announcement that Tolko Industries would be closing the Creekside mill, the City wishes to clarify the implications to the City budget.

As a result of an application for a closure allowance for the Creekside operation by Tolko to the BC Assessment Authority, the City’s industrial assessment base will be affected in 2013. The City estimates a loss of $3.5 million in assessment.

It is important to note that this is not an automatic loss of taxation revenue to the City, but a loss in assessment value, which may need to be collected among the remaining assessment classes, or from an increase in the mill rate to the major industrial class. Council will consider tax rates and other items when it deliberates the 2013 budget and five-year financial plan beginning in January.

“Council wants to acknowledge that this closure has been a serious blow to Tolko, its workers, and the community,” says Mayor Kerry Cook. “We lost more than 100 positions when the Creekside operation closed three years ago, and another 22 people lost their jobs when Tolko decided not to re-open.

“It is also important to remember the positive news we’ve had this year – re-investment and West Fraser’s announcement of a new multimillion dollar planer mill.

City Council is committed to working with Tolko, West Fraser, and other forest products companies, as well as the provincial government, to ensure that Williams Lake and the Cariboo region sustain a thriving and beneficial forest industry.