Flat tax controversy
Property taxes pay for services that keep us safe, clean, comfortable and interested. Each of us may prefer paying for certain services and not others. We may not use all of the services but someone does. That’s sharing the burden. Business and City of Powell River Council donations and volunteers provide the rest (for example the bike and skate park).
We detest taxes and so we share the pain. Canadians believe those with more should help those with less. Our laws force us even if we don’t want to (for example, market value assessments). This causes some to believe they are punished for their success.
Canadians believe success is equal parts work ethic, opportunity and luck. Self-made people sometimes forget the latter two which are provided by family and community. It’s never as easy as “I got mine, why didn’t you get yours?” We are obligated to repay our communities (for example, property taxes).
Before 1990, Powell Riverites paid one property tax based on assessed market value. That year, high-end property values and taxes sky-rocketed. Enter the flat tax (a second levy to help high-enders pay property taxes). It was un-Canadian (low-enders helping high-enders) and declared illegal in 1992. Powell River took a grandfathering loophole to keep charging it.
Present council contemplated ending it in seven years [“Council backs off flat tax reduction plan,” May 13]. Property taxes would then revert to solely market assessments.
The lines in the sand are appearing. Keep the flat tax forever (some high-enders). Cut budgets/services (not mine, just yours). Raise taxes (force the elderly out of their homes that have appreciated over 40 years).
The average Powell Riverite doesn’t begrudge paying more as long as everyone else pays their fair share too. Our sense of community obligation is at stake. You use it, you pay for it. Exemptions for community benefit (for example, churches, non-profits) are legitimate. Anyone or anything else must prove the benefit.
Why have we needed a second top-up tax since 1990? Someone isn’t paying fair share. That is where the flat tax argument should be started.
Lanny Marentette
Manson Avenue
Archery club
My understanding is Paradise Exhibition Park Society and Powell River Regional District have closed down the Archery Club [“Safety concerns spark trouble,” January 7].
Well, in my opinion this is not fair after the club put in $21,000 to insulate the building for seasonal archery. Why would those boards do something like that? You take a sport that everyone enjoys and a true sport for youth and seniors to enjoy and that was Powell River’s Archery Club.
I have a good memory of Wayne Sweeney, a nice friend who was a champion and taught others, and of my nephew Zach Swan, the BC Robin Hood Champion. We had four Robin Hoods, that was awesome. Myself, I was a member for five years with my two sons and enjoyed 3-D shoots, the outdoor range, the indoor range. Now, no range. I am not happy at all.
When people come out to shoot and find out the range and club is closed down for no reason, it is very upsetting.
I would like the society and regional district directors to think of the sport that they have destroyed. Please, do not take the space that our club has cared for and looked after all these years. It is a very good location and very well groomed by our club staff. It is hard to believe the society and regional district would do such a thing to our club.
Clifford Lang
Squamish, BC
Put chainsaws away
It makes me so angry seeing these people doing what they want [“Harvest plans cause stir,” April 29]. They see you’re weak and they take advantage of you. They don’t care about trees. All they care about is money, access to free logs.
It’s easy to log. They don’t have to build roads, very little. They just go ahead and cut.
I don’t think they should log anything.
Brin Wilson
Egmont Street
