Dear Editor:
Recently the District of North Vancouver council has been discussing the Ports Property Tax Act (PPTA) and its implications for district taxpayers.
Introduced by the provincial government in 2004 (when Gordon Campbell was premier), the PPTA mandates a capped tax rate while guiding regulations prescribe assessment value for designated major port properties.
The initiative sought to establish a competitive tax environment for port properties involved in the export of raw materials through the ports of British Columbia in order to ensure international competitiveness. Examples of such properties in the district are the Fibreco Export facility, Neptune Bulk Terminal, and Vancouver Wharves. In total, there are seven heavy industry sites in the district whose taxes are kept artificially low by PPTA.
Since the PPTA was introduced, the assessed value of these heavy industry port facilities (what we have come to call the “capped” heavy industry properties) has risen at a prescribed set rate tied to inflation. The value of the “uncapped” heavy industry sites on the North Shore (which includes for example Allied Shipbuilders at 1870 Harbour Road) have risen at a much faster pace linked to market values, resulting in the assessment values of the “uncapped” properties now averaging 12 times that of the “capped” properties.
The result is a $4.5 million dollar funding gap that must be made up in a higher tax rate for the other classes of district taxpayers, such as the residential class, light industrial class, and “uncapped” heavy industry class.
Put simply, the PPTA results in district taxpayers subsidizing heavy industry in the district. For each residential taxpayer, on average, $100 of their taxes must be used to make up the funding gap created by this legislation that keeps the taxes of these port facilities artificially low.
The matter has been raised by the district (and other municipalities with significant port infrastructure) with the BC NDP government going back to 2017, but to date no changes to the PPTA have been offered. The ongoing inequity of residential taxpayers subsidizing heavy industry continues.
For my part, I commit to lobby the provincial government to address this inequity. Much has changed since former premier Gordon Campbell brought in the PPTA in 2004. Notably, the financial pressures on district taxpayers have never been greater. Our tax bills keep rising. It is time for the tax bills of the “capped” heavy industrial taxpayers to rise in tandem and thereby ensure an even and fair distribution of the overall tax bill.
Jim Hanson
North Vancouver
Jim Hanson has been a District of North Vancouver council member since 2014.
