Municipal Underfunding

In Tight Times, Campbell Gov't Chooses to Help Big Banks

Inept budgeters axed $100 million yearly tax revenue from fat financial institutions. And it gets worse.

It used to be said of the New Democrats (when they were in government during the 1990s), that, such was their lack of business and financial expertise, they couldn't run a lemonade stand.

Sadly, with Gordon Campbell and his BC Liberals, British Columbia today has a government whose fiscal acumen is so abysmal, so evidently lacking, that they appear incapable of operating any business enterprise of any size.

Corporations are People Too

Advocates of democratic electoral reform are really out of step. Ideas like proportional representation and advertising spending limits are so retro, so 2004.

The fashionable electoral reform idea this year is to give corporations a real say. It’s time for individual citizens to share their electoral democracy with corporations to give meaning to those old legal rulings that said corporations are people too.

Forest companies gain legal traction for tax revolt

A brewing tax revolt by B.C. forestry companies has gained a legal foothold after the B.C. Supreme Court found a Vancouver Island community cannot boost its tax rate for forest lands.
This week's court decision will cost the City of Campbell River $1.2-million, but it is also sending ripples through other B.C. communities where forest companies are withholding tax payments in what they say is a battle for survival.

Milltown Tax Mutiny

As pulp mills withhold taxes from tiny communities, BC's municipal officials brace for legal ruling.

"Our story begins on July 2nd, 2009, at 2:30 p.m.," Mayor Lawrence Chernoff began, "about two hours before the close of tax collection for the year."

The Castlegar mayor continued, "The local manager of our Celgar Pulp Mill came in and asked to see if he could see me. I wasn't there, so he left a letter."

One-year halt ordered for Simcoe County dump site

Proposed landfill sits on top of aquifer, opponents argue  MIDHURST – Simcoe County councillors voted this afternoon in favour of a one-year moratorium on the controversial development of the "Site 41" garbage dump in Tiny Township northwest of Barrie.

Pressure had been building on the councillors to halt the development over fears it would contaminate an underground reservoir that scientists say provides some of the cleanest drinking water in the world.

Mayors kick off quest for ways to fund transportation system

Metro Vancouver mayors will Wednesday officially kick off their struggle to find ways to pay for a 50-per-cent increase to the region's transportation system over the next decade.

And their message to the province is going to be: You said you wanted a transportation system that reduces greenhouse gas and you promised new rapid transit here, there and everywhere. Now you need to give us the power to pay for it with vehicle levies, road pricing, and some of your carbon-tax revenue.

Green Municipal Fund Supports Kamloops' Integrated Community Sustainability Plan

KAMLOOPS – Chair Robert Hobson, representing FCM’s Green Municipal Fund and the Honourable Cathy McLeod, on behalf of the Honourable Lisa Raitt, Minister of Natural Resources, announced today a Green Municipal Fund (GMF) grant for the City of Kamloops. The $327,750 grant will be used to develop an Integrated Community Sustainability Plan (ICSP) in order to tie together various City plans and strategies and provide a comprehensive evaluation framework to guide future growth and development.

Oxfam dubs climate change greatest threat to humanity

OTTAWA — The damaging effects of climate change on hundreds of millions of the world's poor — hunger, lack of water, forced migration — is the single greatest threat to humanity this century, says a major new report by Oxfam.

And a Prairie drought at home that could drive up food prices is one tangible effect of that crisis on Canada, Oxfam Canada added Monday.

Infrastructure Stimulus Fund In Ontario

June 5, 2009 2:27 PM

On June 5, 2009, Canada and Ontario announced a joint investment of $1.85 billion for 1,190 infrastructure projects that will create thousands of jobs and help stimulate the economy.

Taxes and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities in Whistler

Tax time in Whistler
By Bob Barnett

It's probably not a coincidence that the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) holds its annual meeting a week after most homeowners receive their tax notices. The meeting gives municipal politicians a chance to get out of town and escape the wrath of voters seething over tax increases - and this year they are all convening and commiserating in Whistler.
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