Letter to the Editor

Our previous letter to the editor has created quite the storm of interesting comments, which definitely keeps the community engaged.

There have been a number of positive responses from the community in general; however, a few incumbents and their supporters have disagreed and state they lack facts.

So here are the facts: When our letter stated that the City of Cranbrook is the fourth highest taxed jurisdiction, the study was based on 27 communities in B.C. with population category range from 10,000 to 24,999. This information is publicly available at civicinfobc.ca. These are facts and not opinions.

Councillor Sharon Cross wrote a letter to the editor inferring that Cranbrook taxes are in the middle of the pack, which is an opinion. She states that she has researched nine municipalities in B.C. with population category from 16,000 to 24,000 and includes Courtenay (population just over 24,000) and then quotes in the newspaper that   “…Cranbrook is around the middle.”

This statement is incorrect. So let’s review these nine municipalities that she refers to and tell me if our municipal tax rates are in the middle as she wrote in her letter to the editor on Tuesday November 4.

Residential Municipal Rate                                 Business Municipal Rate        

City                      Residential Rate                       City                                Business Rate

Port Alberni       9.1145                                           Cranbrook                             19.3029

Cranbrook           7.3476                                         Port Alberni                         15.4923

Williams Lake    5.88                                             Fort St John                           14.5986

Ft. St John             5.189                                          Colwood                                 13.7962

Salmon Arm        4.91                                              Williams Lake                      12.71

Courtenay            4.04                                             Pitt Meadows                      12.4822

Pitt Meadows    4.01                                                Salmon Arm                          12.0018

Colwood               3.4916                                          Courtenay                              11.3279

White Rock         3.679                                            White Rock                           8.728

*source www.civicinfo.bc.ca survey of residential and business municipal tax rates.

These nine communities tell us that Cranbrook has the second highest tax rate for residential and the highest business rate.

What Councillor Cross most likely meant was that the `tax gap rate` is in the middle. There is a large difference between a tax rate and a `tax gap rate.`

The tax rate calculates how much you pay for the municipal portion of your taxes based on per $1,000 of assessed value. The `tax gap rate’ is the gap between the residential rate and the business rate.

I trust this clarifies to Councillor Cross that indeed Cranbrook tax rates for both residential and business are some of the highest in B.C.

Please visit www.civicinfobc.ca to verify these findings. We (Christy and I) have also included the full study of 27 jurisdiction tax rates for population size. It is unfortunate that some choose to counterattack us personally when we are only pointing out the facts and encouraging community discussion about taxation and spending in our city and the need to control its escalating costs.

Jason & Christy Wheeldon,

Cranbrook

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