Economic plan in the works
Summerside building four-year strategy to aid economic development
A four-year economic development strategy is in the works for the City of Summerside. On Feb. 18, councillors learned the split between commercial and residential taxable assessment is about 80 per cent from residential taxes while less than 20 per cent from the commercial industry tax base. Taxable assessment rates are determined by the assessment value provided by the province multiplied the city’s property tax rate. Commercial tax rates are $1.90 per $100 of assessments and non-commercial rates are $0.74.
SUMMERSIDE – A four-year economic development strategy is in the works for the City of Summerside.
On Feb. 18, councillors learned the split between commercial and residential taxable assessment is about 80 per cent from residential taxes while less than 20 per cent from the commercial industry tax base.
Taxable assessment rates are determined by the assessment value provided by the province multiplied the city’s property tax rate. Commercial tax rates are $1.90 per $100 of assessments and noncommercial rates are $0.74.
Coun. Brian McFeely, chair of the city’s economic development committee, reported to council recently that the city is at a cross roads in regard to its economic growth.
“We as a council and our partners in economic development must act with a more future looking perspective or risk the erosion of Summerside’s economic base and along with it, our ability to deliver the high standard services our residents demand and deserve,” he said.
McFeely said the residential sector is growing and the commercial/industrial investments are not keeping pace.
Right now, the current statistical split is 18.6 per cent for commercial/industrial and 81.4 per cent commercial industrial. From an assessment point of view, that’s $161,241,100 from commercial/ industrial and $704,654,845 from residential.
Historically the city has been at a 23 per cent commercial to 77 per cent residential in the early 2000s, said Mike Thususka, the Economic Development Officer for the city.
“The core function of a municipality is to provide services that support the public good of a municipality. Property tax is to equitably distribute the costs of basic municipal service and infrastructure needs across the property owners within the municipality,” said Thususka.
However, in terms of averages, in most Canadian cities residential properties comprise over 70 per cent of the total taxable assessment, he said.
Bathurst, N.B. has an assessment split of 72 per cent from the residential tax base and 28 per cent from the commercial base.
Truro, N.S. sees a 75 per cent to 25 per cent split in the two sectors from an assessment standpoint.
“From a revenue standpoint, it’s about a 50/50 split,” said Aundrea Currie, finance manager with Truro, a community similar in size to Summerside.
Summerside sees a tax revenue split of about 37 per cent commercial to about 63 per cent residential.
McFeely added, the four-year strategy that is in the works goes hand-in-hand with trying to move the commercial percentage higher.
He said the goal is to grow the industrial/commercial tax base to a minimum of 21 per cent over the next four years. This will be accomplished through businessfriendly and responsive program tools including business retention and attraction, cultivating relationships in the private and public sectors and communicating the city’s strengths.
That’s $3.063 million (18.6 per cent) to $3.732 million (21 per cent) in tax revenue.
“This is a $700,000 increase in revenue,” McFeely said in an interview with the Journal Pioneer.
He said it’s critical work on this goal is started sooner rather than later.
On Tuesday, council continued the four-year strategy conversation at the Committees of Council meeting.