25 March 2008
Cote St. Luc Hopes for Repeal of Municipal Tax Break for Railways
Cote St. Luc hopes for repeal of municipal tax break for
railways.
Cote St. Luc Montreal Quebec - The City of Cote St. Luc is
leading an effort to have railways operating within the boundaries of cities pay 100 percent of their municipal tax.
Since 1992, the railways have been paying cities at only a 40 percent tax rate.
As a result Cote St. Luc claims it has been losing about $1 million a year, as has the Montreal Agglomeration, the umbrella
organization which provides a number of important services to Montreal Island municipalities.
"We know for a fact that their (the railways') valuations have not increased at the same rate as the residential", Councillor
Dida Berku, who is responsible for financial dossiers, said after tabling a resolution, being forwarded to provincial legislators, at
this month's meeting of city council.
The City of Montreal and other municipalities on the island are expected to follow.
Berku said that during the same time period, the railways, and Canadian Pacific in particular, were contesting their municipal property
valuations.
"So their valuations are constantly being contested by the companies themselves", she said.
"But on top of being contested, they just haven't increased at the same rate. So for these two reasons we are losing a lot of
revenue and it's time that this anomaly be corrected".
According to Berku, the railways were given a break because they were paying a lot in diesel fuel tax, and it was costing more then to
transport merchandise across the country.
"But now that we're in the Wal-Mart economy, they're making billions of dollars in profit", she said.
"I mean they're making record-breaking profits and there's no reason to give them a tax break. I think that
municipalities should collect one-hundred percent and we shouldn't be losing all this money every year to these huge
railway companies that are polluting, vibrating, creating noise, and just creating a nuisance for residents", she added.
"At the same time, we're not getting the benefit of the full tax, so we're asking the government to give us back the hundred
percent tax".
Councillor Allan J. Levine, who is responsible for railway issues on council, said the City had not only been losing income from the
railways, but also from residential property owners whose homes are located near the tracks.
"The houses next to the tracks were getting lower evaluations because they were being bothered by the trains, so we were losing in
all cases", he said.
"We would like them (the railways) to invest in the infrastructure to quieten the trains and certainly give us our fair share of
tax".
Avrom Shtern, a local environmentalist who sides with city council on most environmental issues, said he disagreed with their current
stance.
"Why should railways pay for road construction like the Cavendish extension"? he said.
"I truly feel that if we are to improve our environment, if we want to look at the issues of peak oil and energy efficiency, then
trains are the way to go. We have to get more trucks off of our highways. We don't want to do the
reverse".
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