Downtown Halifax

The Taxman Doesn’t Play Fair

The following originally ran as an editorial in the November 2011 issue of Halifax Magazine. 

Why do businesses that stay downtown pay larger tax rates that subsidize their competition?

By Paul MacKinnon, executive director of the Downtown Halifax Business Commission

Think of the Chinese restaurant King’s Palace (great egg rolls!) on Quinpool Road. Now picture Costco, in Bayers Lake.  Did you know that King’s Palace pays almost five times more per square foot in taxes than Costco? Is that fair? Just keep that in mind and read on.

“Tax reform” is now a dirty phrase at City Hall. It became so through the ultimately nasty residential tax reform process that made its way to HRM Council, which seemed to pit residents in some areas against residents in others. Ultimately, it was defeated and there is little appetite to dredging it back up.

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This is the last thing I’ll say about the convention centre

The nay side lines up with the following arguments: “The building is too big and the architecture doesn’t fit in with our historic city.”; “Its benefits will only be felt Downtown.”; “Why do we even need a new one – why not just expand the existing one?”; “If it’s such a good idea, private business should do it! Why commit taxpayer money?”; “The industry is in decline, being replaced by the Internet.” etc.

All legitimate arguments for not proceeding with a new central library?

I jest of course. The library is a great idea, and the one we all seem to agree on. But I am struck by the fact that the same arguments against the convention centre could also be used (but aren’t) to voice opposition against the library. I suffer from no such conflicts, because I support both!

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The City That Can

Remember when we were the little city that could? Those of us with longer memories might remember when we were a boomtown during the Second World War. Some might remember when we conducted ill-advised, but bold urban renewal projects in the 1960s. Some might remember when we were the urban lifeblood in the 1970s, with theatres and high-end shops on Barrington Street. Some, like me, only came to Halifaxin the 1990s, but we, too, recall with fondness when Halifaxwas a place of promise and hope and a little bit of a swagger. I can’t help but reflect fondly on the summer of ‘95 when we hosted the G7 conference of world leaders. This was a time when people swarmed to the Downtown, not to riot, but to get a glimpse of Hillary Clinton shopping in Historic Properties, or Helmut Kohl driving by in his limo, or Jean Chrétien schlepping a case of Alexander Keith’s across Grafton Street. To close the event (and it really was a Haligonian event, not a closed-off session of world leaders), we had a huge Ceilidh on Citadel Hill, and 40,000 people showed up. Who would have thought that Halifax could have so successfully hosted so large an event? Well, we did!

As the same time, the city was booming and expanding. We were joining the big time and getting Walmart and Price Club, and cutting swaths of new homes in formerly forested areas. This was also progress, because you could have the total package – a big suburban home, with a job in the urban core. We were becoming Toronto, without the attitude!

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