A contrite Justin Trudeau was barely able to look straight into the camera as he took to the podium after the results of the Labrador election were announced on Monday night. Minutes before, the Conservative Party of Canada had pointed out that the Liberal candidate, Yvonne Jones, led her Conservative
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: In Which I Find KinShip with Foamy the Squirrel
I’ll just let Foamy do the talking..:) Yes, and you people know who you are…the positive ones…I see you scuttling toward the back. Filed under: Humour Tagged: Foamy the Squirrel, Humour, In Praise of being Critical
Continue readingBlunt Objects Blog: Final Projection for BC: Likely NDP Majority
Today is E-Day in British Columbia, and its also the day that we’ll see a turnover in that province’s government after 12 years of BC Liberal rule. Though they’ve put up a valiant fight over the last couple of weeks, evident by the rolling trend charts below, the BC Liberals
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Is Ottawa mishandling your personal data?
The federal government may be the biggest risk to Canadians’ privacy as “some government departments have suffered breaches virtually every 48 hours.” The government continually pushes for more of our private data, yet history shows it as a great deal of troubling protecting it. We deserve better. Call for a
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Spectacular Video – Nature at Work on the Saskatchewan River
The Saskatchewan Water Security Agency recorded this amazing video of a massive ice surge along the Saskatchewan River.
Continue readingdrive-by planet: Activist Assata Shakur put on FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist list: reeks of political targeting
In the weeks following the Boston bombing, an icon of the black liberation struggle in the U.S., Assata Shakur, has turned up on the FBI’s most wanted terrorist list. The timing is far from coincidental. It’s the first time a woman has been placed on the bureau’s terrorist list… in
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Maybe There’s More Sarah Palin Than We’d Like to Admit in Our Own Politicians.
An eye-opener in today’s Guardian reveals that, before she jettisoned the Alaska governor’s office to join John McCain’s presidential campaign, Sarah Palin was actively involved on the climate change front. In September 2007, a rising star of Alaskan politics dared to take on one of the toughest, most challenging issues
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Defeating Harper from Below
Fast-paced changes over the previous four elections have transformed Canada’s federal political landscape. The Liberal Party’s vote has been halved and the Bloc Québécois suffered nearly as badly. The NDP made spectacular, if still precarious, gains under Jack Layton, with a historically unprecedented showing in Québec. Only the Conservatives’ advance
Continue readingLeDaro: Bangladesh Tragedy: Exploitation of poor countries by big corporations
When I read about the Bangladesh garment factory tragedy it breaks my heart. Over 1000 workers dead and many more missing. Cheap clothing in the U.S, but at what cost? Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Continue readingBill Given: City Moves Forward With Annexation
Last night council formally approved moving the annexation process forward by approving a final set of information sessions for the public. As the City’s media release below details it’s been a long process to get to this point, and there is still more to go before annexation is actually complete.
Continue readingBill Given: City Moves Forward With Annexation
Last night council formally approved moving the annexation process forward by approving a final set of information sessions for the public. As the City’s media release below details it’s been a long process to get to this point, and there is still more to go before annexation is actually complete.
Continue readingBill Given: City Moves Forward With Annexation
Last night council formally approved moving the annexation process forward by approving a final set of information sessions for the public. As the City’s media release below details it’s been a long process to get to this point, and there is still more to go before annexation is actually complete.
Although the City “officially” initiated annexation back in early 2011 (by sending the County and the Municipal Government Board formal letters) I really view the process as having started back in 2005 or 2006. Back then Mayor Ayling’s council started a discussion about how the city would grow in the future and that initiated what would result in the 2008 Growth Study (PDF Download). Then, after the election in 2007, Mayor Logan’s Council started renegotiating the Intermunicipal Development Plan (PDF Download) with the County. When it was completed, after nearly 3 years of negotiations, the IDP laid out the future annexation areas for the city in two chunks that were intended to provide for a “30 Year” and “50 Year” growth horizon. Then, shortly after the 2010 election – in the spring of 2011 – this current council sent the letter that started the direct negotiations and landowner consultations that we are just wrapping up now.
Future growth areas for the City. |
Annexation is important for the City because we need to be able to offer a variety of development options to expand our tax base, particularly for commercial and industrial properties. Without the raw land laid out in the annexation area the city has extremely limited space to be able to attract new industrial and commercial development. These two classes of properties pay property taxes at a higher rate than residential properties – essentially they carry more of the burden of the city budget, so obviously if we have more of them it reduces the load on all the existing properties. One important thing to note is that while this is unquestionably about new taxes – it is NOT a “tax grab” as annexations are sometimes made out to be. If this was a “tax grab” the city would be annexing the already developed areas of the County, particularly the Clairmont area. As you can see in the map, that is not the case; the city is getting largely undeveloped land and the County gets to retain and grow it’s Clairmont area. (The light yellow areas are the “30 Year” growth areas that we are talking about in this annexation, the darker brown areas are the “50 Year” growth areas.)
Once the annexation is complete the city still has a lot of work to do to encourage growth and development of new tax paying properties in the new areas of the city. City Council recognizes this and we’ve started that work by recently adopting our Industrial Attraction Strategy (LINK), and beginning investments in the infrastructure that will help fuel development.
So, we are nearing the end of one phase of what has been, and will be, a very long process in improving the City’s financial viability.
City media release below….
Open Houses Set For Annexation
- Taxation Phase-in Formulas – City’s Final Positions on Landowner Taxation Transition from County to City rates
- Zoning /Development Opportunities
- Service Levels
- Lifestyle Issues, including solid waste and business licenses
OPSEU Diablogue: Ombudsman seeking expanded role since 1975 – could this finally be the time?
“There is no effective, independent, investigative oversight of hospital administration. Period.” – Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin, 2008 Ontario has been resisting Ombudsman oversight of its public hospitals for long enough. Marin says he is not the first to demand this … Continue reading →
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Reason To Hope?
Canadians want a vision for the future. Canadians know we’re not going in the right direction. A lot of Canadians are dismayed at the calamity that has befallen our democracy and the mean-spirited authoritarianism and the divide and conquer politics that have become the benchmark of our federal government. Give
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Is This Our Civilization’s Obituary?
From the New Yorker. Nicholas Thompson, on the crossing of the 400 ppm marker, tries to put our civilization’s future in perspective, to show the moral collapse that we work so hard to ignore, and the brutal prospects we bequeath to our children and theirs. It’s something of a pre-mortem
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On private policy
Last month, I wrote about the Sask Party’s choice to redefine “privacy” to apply to corporations under Saskatchewan’s securities legislation: Until now, privacy has been recognized under Canadian law as being an individual right. As Justice La Forest wrote, “An expression of an individual’s unique personality or personhood, privacy is
Continue readingThe World Famous Dan Shields: 5991…Tim Hudak’s Childhood Idol Wants Outta Jail
That would be O. J. Simpson. If you are a certain age you may recall that the former Buffalo Bills running back was wrongfully accused of killing his wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend, Ron Goldman. Mr. Simpson is now locked up in Nevada for up to 33 years [his
Continue readingThe Moncton Times@Transcript - Good and Bad: May 14: The story you won’t see in the Times and Transcript.
I am beginning this blog on the evening of May 13 because I’m confident the big story will not appear (ever) in the Times and Transcript. The President of Guatemala (who was almost certainly involved in the genocide of Guatemala native peoples that ran up a death toll of a quarter million)
Continue readingThe World Famous Dan Shields: 5990…Tim Hudak Loves Sun Front Page
My understanding is he sent his executive assistant to the frame shop the second the paper hit the front stoop. He’s all for Ontario. Except when he is not. WFDS
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