Kamloops council plans to shift tax rates to lower impact on heavy industry | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
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Kamloops council plans to shift tax rates to lower impact on heavy industry

The Domtar mill in Kamloops is pictured in this file photo.
Image Credit: FILE PHOTO

KAMLOOPS - City councillors have approved a motion for two new tax rate bylaws aimed to lower the city’s currently heavy tax rate for major industries in Kamloops.

Currently the tax rate for the city’s major industry class sits at 74.00, and the provincial average from municipalities roughly the same size of Kamloops is 24.17. The tax rate for 2018 will stay frozen at 73.00 to make up the $8.5 million loss from Lafarge Canada’s closure of the cement plant, but in the future they plan to gradually lower the rate.

“Kamloops has a long way to go to drop (the tax rate) to the provincial average,” financial director Kathy Humphrey told council at it's 2018 budget meeting today, April 17.

Humphrey explained the new bylaws will allow taxes collected by major industries such as Domtar or Tolko to cap at $6.2 million annually.

Mayor Ken Christian says the two companies are huge contributors to the city’s revenue.

“We do have to recognize their significant contributions,” Christian says, adding the new bylaws will allow major industries to update and upgrade their machinery and facilities without being penalized with a heavy tax rate.

“Domtar wants us to get in line with the provincial average,” he says, explaining with the lower tax rate coming the company can invest into environmentally productive upgrades in the future.

If Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion resumes, Humphrey says the gains from the pipeline would be reallocated to the city's major industry category.

“Rather than take the gain we would put it towards Class 4,” she says.

Humphrey says residential taxpayers would only notice a minor shift annually to their property taxes.

Council has been discussing lowering the tax rates for the city’s major industry class since last year.


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