Tag Archives: Election Campaign

City OK’s another parking lot

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Last October, during the waning days of the 2010 mayoral race, Sam Katz called downtown Winnipeg’s plethora of empty lots an eyesore and a public safety hazard as he pledged to extend a moratorium on new surface parking in the city’s core.

Less than a year later, city hall quietly approved the demolition of the 89-year-old Orpheum building on Fort Street to make way for a new surface parking lot to serve clients of Yoga Public, the Fort Garry Hotel’s new four-studio yoga centre. Heavy equipment brought down the vacant building two weeks ago. In spite of the demolition, the mayor said he remains committed to reducing the number of vacant tracts downtown, as promised during his re-election campaign.

New incentives for developers who build on surface lots should come to council in early 2012, said Katz, who called the demolition of the Orpheum “a very unique scenario” because the new surface lot was required to support a $2.5-million redevelopment of the former Carleton Club, an even larger vacant building.

“We’re replacing a vacant building downtown with a multimillion-dollar investment,” Katz said Wednesday in an interview, referring to Yoga Public, which bills itself as the largest yoga centre in Canada. “This will not be a stand-alone surface lot. It’s the expansion of an existing lot to ensure the viability of a new business.”

For the past six years, Fort Garry Hotel managing partner Ida Albo has been trying to convert the 36-year-old Carleton Club into a yoga studio to serve both clients of the hotel and the Winnipeg yoga market. Those renovations are underway and Yoga Public is slated to open on Dec. 5.

Albo said she was only able to arrange financing for the studio after securing surface parking for Yoga Public.

“We would have preferred to develop the (Orpheum) building, but it wasn’t an option,” she said. “In our case, it was a condition of financing. We wouldn’t have been able to develop a chronically vacant building if we couldn’t supply parking.”

The new surface lot at the former Orpheum site sits next to an existing surface parking lot immediately north of Yoga Public.

Once paved, the new lot will be enclosed by decorative fencing with brick columns and will also be illuminated at night, Katz said.

The Orpheum originally served as a billiard hall before being converted into a theatre and eventually a restaurant. It has been vacant for the past decade, said Barry Thorgrimson, Winnipeg’s acting property director.

Thorgrimson approved the demolition of the building in September through an administrative order. No public hearing was required.

“What we’re trying to do is achieve a proper balance in planning,” he said. “Here we had a vacant building that had a history associated with drugs and crime. Visually, it was a blight and there was an open parking lot next door to it with no development standards at all.

“Meanwhile, the Carleton Club was vacant and a developer came forward willing to invest a substantial amount of money to create a new business.”

Thorgrimson said he does not believe Winnipeg will ever get rid of downtown surface lots, but his department plans to bring forward new incentives as promised by Katz last year.

Under the mayor’s proposed program, any downtown surface lot that is developed upward will enjoy a five-year freeze on property taxes — and then see the higher assessment resulting from the improvements kick in over the following three years. During this year’s provincial election, the NDP government made a surface-lot pledge of its own. In September, Premier Greg Selinger promised to build condos and apartments on four government-owned surface parking lots in downtown Winnipeg.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/city-oks-another-parking-lot-132223583.html

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Katz leaves door open a crack to possibility of property-tax increase

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Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz said he still hopes to deliver another a property-tax freeze this year but continued to leave the door open a crack for the first hike since the late ’90s.

Speaking to reporters after an executive policy committee meeting, Katz repeated his 2010 election campaign pledge to make a property-tax increase a last resort when he and his colleagues develop the 2011 operating budget.

But the mayor also continued to describe a tax freeze as a goal, as opposed to a certainty.

The City of Winnipeg balanced its last two operating budgets without increasing property taxes through methods that included one-time transfers from other accounts, the elimination of middle-management positions and also by expecting to settle disputes with the province over ambulance funding and Manitoba Hydro taxes.

Pulling off the same trick this year will be difficult considering the rising cost of police, firefighter and other salaries. Every one of the city’s unions is either renegotiating its collective bargaining agreement or about to do so later this year.

The city’s operating budget will be tabled in February. The city’s capital budget, which covers infrastructure improvements and equipment purchases, will likely be tabled at the end of next week, Katz said.

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Reflections on the 2008 Canadian Tax Year

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Whether it is considered a welcome break or a hollow gesture, the federal government’s GST cut to five per cent took effect Tuesday with little fanfare and few complaints from retailers who collect the tax.

The government estimates that cutting the tax one percentage point will save Canadians $6 billion, which will flow back to them a few cents at a time, depending on the size of their purchases, adding up to about $150 to $200 per household each year, according to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

For big retailers like Future Shop, the change was a simple computer-system change, which gives their customers a break on the prices they’re paying.
Prime Minster Stephen Harper promoted the five-per-cent GST as part of his last election campaign.
Prime Minster Stephen Harper promoted the five-per-cent GST as part of his last election campaign.
J. P. Moczulski, Reuters
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“I would say consumers will be happy [about the cut],” Ram Manaktahla, general manager of the Future Shop outlet at Robson and Granville streets in downtown Vancouver said.

“Think of all the products customers [are buying]. From iPods to digital cameras, flat-screen televisions, laptops, notebooks — they’re saving one [percentage point] on all of them.”

Vancouver-based retail consultant David Gray added that the first stage of the Conservative government’s GST cut, from seven per cent to six per cent which took place July 1, 2006, went relatively smoothly for retailers, “so I think they know the drill.”

“The complaint of retailers is they’re essentially taking on the job of tax collector without a lot of support and basically no thanks,” Gray said. Whether the tax fluctuates, he added, is less of an issue.

However, government critics counter that cutting the consumption-based GST may mean little for average Canadians.

“Those with the highest salaries — the millionaires, the big banks, the [profitable] corporations … The ones that don’t need the help are going to get the most help,” from the GST cut, said federal NDP leader Jack Layton.

He added that average families may also see higher property taxes, post-secondary education fees and other bills.

Patricia Croft, chief economist with the investment firm Phillips, Hager & North, said anyone making big-ticket purchases will benefit from the consumption tax reduction.

However, she added that “in general, most economists would prefer a cut in income taxes. It’s a more efficient way to reduce the tax burden.

“By cutting the GST, hopefully it causes Canadians to spend more.”

The GST savings amounts to about $2 on the purchase of a $199.99 iPod MP3 player, $100 on a $10,000 home-theatre system or $300 on a $30,000 automobile.

Manaktahla said Future Shop gave its Christmas-season customers a jump on the GST break by knocking the percentage point off its prices starting Dec. 28. Customers who made purchases up to 30 days before that date could claim the reduction under the store’s “price-protection” guarantee.

Consumers need to be wary, however, to make sure they are getting full benefit of the cut, especially since the transition is occurring over the Christmas shopping period, according to tax expert Beverley Gilbert.

Gilbert, a chartered accountant and national tax-practice leader for the law firm Borden Ladner and Gervais, said people going to stores in January to return gifts purchased in December need to keep a close eye on their receipts to make sure they are credited for the full amount of GST that was paid on the gift in the first place.

Gilbert added that homeowners who take possession of new houses after Jan. 1 will get a GST break, too, but they will have to apply to the federal government for a rebate instead of seeing it knocked off the purchase price in their builder’s contract.

Consumers who have leased cars or other property should also see the GST cut in their payments, Gilbert added, even if they signed leases prior to Jan. 1.

John Williamson, national director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, however, defended this second trim in the GST.

Despite the criticisms, Williamson said the GST reductions from seven per cent to five per cent are broad-based measures that put, by his estimate, $10 billion a year back into people’s pockets.

“This is good news, particularly since $10 billion in the pockets of Canadian consumers is preferable to Ottawa hoarding the cash,” Williamson said.
Despite the criticisms, Williamson said the GST reductions from seven per cent to five per cent are broad-based measures that put, by his estimate, $10 billion a year back into people’s pockets.

“This is good news, particularly since $10 billion in the pockets of Canadian consumers is preferable to Ottawa hoarding the cash,” Williamson said.

http://www2.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=34b943f3-2a71-422f-b676-10f1b85b4c7a&k=87417

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