
Dispute over Harmac's 2009 property assessment wraps up
Both sides have filed their final submissions
Nanaimo Daily News
Published: Friday, February 19, 2010
Both sides in the Harmac pulp mill's dispute over its 2009 property
assessment filed their final submissions to a government appeal board by
last Friday's deadline.
Levi Sampson, president of Nanaimo Forest Products, which owns Harmac,
said the mill's final submission was filed a number of weeks ago and
company officials are now "waiting for the process to unfold."
Bill Dawson, an assessor with the B.C. Assessment Authority's Nanaimo
office, said the BCAA filed its final submission and he expects the
appeal board will deliver a final decision by the end of March.
The worker-led NFP began an appeal process with the B.C. Assessment
Authority last April over the authority's $17-million assessment of the
250 acres where the mill is located.
Harmac owns about 500 hectares of industrial land at Duke Point that it
paid $13.2 million for in 2008.
NFP paid the city $100,000 in required taxes for 2009 on the rest of its
property, but the company is arguing the assessment of the mill property
is far too high and has refused to pay the outstanding $2.8 million tax
bill until the appeal board rules on the dispute.
The City of Nanaimo levied more than $200,000 in penalties last summer
against the mill for missing two tax deadlines, and the city began
charging 5% daily interest on the tax bill on Jan. 1.
If Harmac's appeal bid is successful, the city stands to lose about
$550,000 in annual revenue.
Sampson said Harmac was quick to file its final submission because the
NFP sees the facts as "pretty clear cut" and expects to win the appeal,
but the company will abide by whatever decision is made.
Dawson said just four property assessment appeals out of 66 filed in the
central Island region for 2009 have yet to be resolved, including
Harmac's.
"This is a complicated appeal with a lot of issues that involve big
financial numbers so it's not surprising it's one of the last the appeal
board will rule on," he said.
Dawson said the BCAA followed the letter of the legislation to ascertain
Harmac's assessment and it is comparable to similar operations in the
province.
High industrial taxes in Nanaimo have long been a major concern for the
city's pulp and sawmills and other heavy industries. The city began
responding last year with a four-year plan to eventually drop its
industrial tax rate by more than 50%.
The move saw an $800,000 tax cut for Harmac in 2009 compared to 2008.