West Fraser raise property taxation concerns in Quesnel

Shortly after the Nov 2014 Local Election - West Fraser, Tolko and C&C Wood Products wrote to Quesnel Council congratulating them for their election win and outlining some of the forest industry concerns that lay ahead to be addressed including access to forest tenure and the reduction of the industrial tax base.  Read their letters here (West Fraser), here (Tolko) and here (C&C Wood Products)

In addition to those letters, Tolko representatives' have appeared before Quesnel Council at their March 30th meeting while Williams Lake Mayor Walt Cobb and WL City Councillors Ivan Bonnell, Jason Ryll, Craig Smith and Sue Zacharias met with West Fraser representatives' at a special Council-in-Committee meeting back on Feb 5th, to brief the new Quesnel/Williams Lake Municipal Councils' on the state of the forestry industry and some concerns to make those Councils' aware of

Now - in a letter dated March 30th from West Fraser, they implore Quesnel Mayor Bob Simpson to bear in mind that the 5% property tax increase impacts (going to the Quesnel Works program (Infrastructure)) for 2015 and 2016 will have on their operating plants to compete in the world market and going so far as to remind Mayor Simpson as to his commitment in the last civic election that heavy industry was paying far too much of the overall tax bill for Quesnel - read their letter to Mayor Simpson here.  The letter will be received at Quesnel Council's meeting on Monday

As of 2014 (latest stats available) - Williams Lake/Quesnel were in the top 3 communities for having the highest heavy industry tax mill rate in the Province

Obviously - this is not just a local issue but a provincial one where many local governments' struggle as to how to have the "perfect" balance of property tax ratios between various local tax classes (residential, business, heavy/light industry, utilities) and one that I expect to continue, given that residents' have generally expressed no further ability to accept property tax hikes but recognizing that residents' do vote at election time while companies are barred from voting as an entity, as a result of the Corporate Vote being prohibited, via provincial law for local election rules while local governments' struggle to fund basic services while taking ability to pay by residential/industrial/business owners' into consideration...

~SF