The City and the Industrial Taxpayer

June 30, 2010 | Stan Westby, City of Powell River, B.C.

Beginning its life as a company town in 1912, the City of Powell River, B.C., has experienced an increasingly adversarial relationship with its major industrial taxpayer, Catalyst Paper Corporation, a specialty paper manufacturer. This is not surprising as it corresponds to the world-wide downturn in the resource sector economy, and a resulting trend of industrial taxpayers working to cut costs in a variety of ways, including reduction of assessed property taxes. When cost-cutting measures fail, closures occur and, in a one-industry town such as Powell River, the results could be devastating.