UCP government folks swear that tax measures introduced Tuesday were not meant to goose city council with a sharp stick.
But that’s exactly what they do.
The province will allow cities and towns to attract new businesses with multi-year breaks and deals on non-residential property tax.
In Calgary today this registers somewhere between a bad joke and a bitter irony.
Local businesses continue to be slammed with huge increases. How can a council offer a 15-year tax deal to, say, Amazon, at the same time it’s running longtime Calgary enterprises out of business?
These amendments to the Municipal Government Act allow Alberta cities to compete for business with each other, and the outside world.
But it’s only going to work for cities that already have functioning tax regimes.
Calgary will have to reform itself from the ground up if it’s going to compete against new tax deals in places like Airdrie, Balzac or, yes, Edmonton.
The city simply isn’t prepared for such a dramatic policy change. Tough little competitors like Chestermere are.
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