Sheesh, haven’t wars have been started over lesser things!

Money, get away.

Get a good job with good pay and you’re okay.

Money, it’s a gas.

Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash.

New car, caviar, four star daydream,

Think Ill buy me a football team.

Money, get back.

I’m all right jack keep your hands off of my stack.

(Pink Floyd-Money)

They have more than a few things to keep them occupied in Kitimat these days, but we suspect that around the council chambers, Mayor Wozney and his councillors might be humming a Pink Floyd tune. Curious as to the intentions of their neighbours up highway 37 to the north.

The Terrace Standard has a report in this week’s paper examining the covetous eyes of Mayor Jack Talstra and his thoughts on all that potential tax money that floats around Kitimat thanks to the anticipated construction of a new Alcan smelter in Kitimat.

Somehow we don’t think Mr. Talstra should start spending, let alone counting piles of Alcan cash just yet!

Mayor wants taste of Alcan taxes
The Terrace Standard
May 16 2007

TERRACE MAYOR Jack Talstra says the District of Kitimat shouldn’t be the only local government to benefit from increased property tax payments that will flow if Alcan goes ahead with its planned $2 billion smelter rebuild.

Talstra estimates Alcan could pay Kitimat at least $15 million and possibly more at current property tax rates should the rebuild take place. This year it is scheduled to pay Kitimat $8.48 million.

“Really, what we would have here is one community, Kitimat, becoming a ‘have’ community and other communities in Alcan’s world not being ‘have’ communities in taxation,” he said last week.

“It’s what First Nations have been talking about here for the last 200 years and that’s having everyone have economic opportunities. There has to be a way to balance the region with money to every community.”

Talstra’s framing his argument around the concept that local governments should share in the tax base of industries outside their boundaries if that industry’s employees and business activity use that government’s services.

In Alcan’s case, as many as 250 of its workers live in Terrace out of a current roster of 1,500 people.

Talstra also bases his idea on the northeast where the provincial government has specific revenue sharing agreements with municipalities tied to assessments on rural industrial development.

“Oil and gas is a natural resource and we see the same here with water as being a natural resource,” said Talstra in referring to Alcan’s hydro-generating facilities at Kemano which provide the power to run the smelter.

The mayor did acknowledge that the District of Kitimat can adjust its tax rates so that any new smelter won’t result in payments in excess of the current figure.

Talstra isn’t the first northwestern politician to speak about tax issues connected to Alcan.
Just two weeks ago the District of Kitimat released what it called “negotiating objectives” tied to Alcan’s rebuild plan.

One of the points was the removal of the current property tax exemption Alcan enjoys on its Kemano hydro-electric generating facilities within the Kitimat-Stikine and Bulkley-Nechako regional districts.

The Bulkley-Nechako regional district has raised that issue over the years and former Skeena Liberal MLA Roger Harris mused about the same in 2002.

Skeena’s current MLA, NDPer Robin Austin, has taken a slightly different approach. He says Alcan should pay more for water used to generate electricity that it sells onward as opposed to water Alcan uses to generate electricity to smelt aluminum.

Austin argues that Alcan makes far more selling power than making aluminum so that it should pay more for the use of the water in the first place.

The northeastern revenue sharing plan is based on rural industrial assessments with a portion of the resulting revenue being provided to municipalities in the region.

The province signed a 20-year deal in 2005 which paid out $20 million in the first year alone.
“Communities in this region cannot access what ordinarily would be their municipal industrial property tax base,” a provincial statement at the time indicated.

Fort St. John received the most at $15 million for the first year while Taylor the least at $258,299.