That was my first thought when it was revealed that the gentleman who is purchasing Mountain View school requested a ten year property tax break for fixing-up the old girl and keeping the heritage facades. It almost sounds like a threat or ultimatum. It also appears a little Trumpish. I will refurbish it with retail and residential units but you, the taxpayer, should help me pay for it. Red flag alert! Revelstoke Current file photo
Is Revelstoke being asked to get involved in a Trump-style tax scheme?
That was my first thought when it was revealed that the gentleman who is purchasing Mountain View school requested a ten year property tax break for fixing-up the old girl and keeping the heritage facades. It almost sounds like a threat or ultimatum. It also appears a little Trumpish. I will refurbish it with retail and residential units but you, the taxpayer, should help me pay for it. Red flag alert!
Technically it’s called, tax relief for heritage revitalization, a process not unheard of in other Canadian municipalities. Google National Trust for Canada and you can read all about it in short, categorized terms or you can attend this week’s Council meeting on Tuesday and hear all about it.
The local account of this request says the City’s Manager of Development Services is all for approving the project, with the tax relief scheme. Council will make the final decision.
Converting the old school house to shops, a restaurant, an artisan brewery and apartment couldn’t be a better idea but with a tax break? You know who pays for that.
In case your grumbling that this column is anti-business… WRONG! It’s PRO-taxpayer. This request could lead to an expensive precedent.
Vigilantes make it very uncomfortable for a local man
Another situation that drives my apprehension meter over the top comes from a report in this fine journal of October 18, RCMP are investigating Creep Catchers’ allegations against a local man. That’s the type of headline that gets everybody’s attention. No denying we didn’t read the accompanying text on the off chance that a name might be dropped.
Creep Catchers is a vigilante group that catches and exposes alleged perpetrators who have allegedly tried to lure under-age kids into a sexual relationship, then video records their catches and then posts them on a video site.
Entrapment? Any defence lawyer would probably say so. Should police be handling these cases? Of coarse, unless you’re one of the many who say the creep deserves all the embarrassment and exposure that can be handed out.
But what if Creep Catchers get the wrong person? There’s plenty of room in a vigilante system for that to happen and we all know that once accused of this type of crime… GUILTY, in the court of public opinion, FOREVER NO MATTER WHAT.
Fortunately our system still holds a person innocent until found guilty; not so fortunate that so few subscribe to that corner stone of democracy in these cases. However, that’s why we have police and a constitution.
Yours in social sarcasm,
Ms. Anne Throap
Revelstoke, BC
Pet Peeve of the Month
CNN News as an enabler of addiction. As much as I hate myself for it and as annoying as the US election campaign is I just can’t seem to help myself from getting glued to the screen to see what Donald Trump’s next stunt will be.
