Today (April 30th) is the self-imposed deadline by Victoria to come to an agreement with the muncipalities of Chetwynd, Hudson's Hope, Dawson Creek, Taylor, Tumbler Ridge, Fort St John, Pouce Coupe and the Peace River Regional District over an agreement called "Fair Share" which essentially says in exchange for not imposing industrial property taxes on properties owned by the oil/gas sector, the Province will give a "Grant in Lieu of Taxes" to recognize the impact that the Oil/Gas sector has on the local governments in the Northeast part of BC, given that the oil/gas sector operates outside the muncipalities/Peace River RD but yet has impacts on these local governments
The Fair Share agreement has been in place since the mid-90's and the last agreement was signed in 2011 and was good until 2020. More details here. In fact, this unique arrangement has been so successful, both the City of Prince George & Cariboo RD/City of Williams Lake had been looking at a similar arrangement in these two areas in recent years
However, earlier this year, the Province served notice to Chetwynd, Hudson's Hope, Dawson Creek, Taylor, Tumbler Ridge, Fort St John, Pouce Coupe and the Peace River Regional District that it wished to re-open negotiations for a new Fair Share agreement to 2030 as the current agreement was one that the Province could no longer afford, given the current state of the oil/gas sector.
Unfortunately - this has caused the Northeast local governments' to split into two camps:
Camp 1 - Chetwynd, Hudson's Hope, Dawson Creek, Tumbler Ridge, Pouce Coupe and the Peace River Regional District
Camp 2 - Fort St John and Taylor
In fact, Fort St John Mayor Lori Ackerman has gone so far as to call the Province's actions "The exploitation of the North has begun" and "Fort St John/Taylor will be plunged into despair"
I, and suspect many local governments in the North, will be watching this story very closely
CBC Daybreak North looks at this matter. Audio story below:
No comments:
Post a Comment