Common Council has until April 30th to decide whether or not the city wants the provincial government to move ahead and repeal the 25 year LNG tax deal with Irving Oil that was made 10 years ago.
Minister of Environment and Local Government Brian Kenny wrote the city a letter last week to explain the possible positive or negative impacts pending changes to the assessment and to assure that any potential losses of municipal tax revenue will come at the expense of the city, not the province.
Kenny says any extra dollars that could come in would be distributed amongst other municipalities throughout the province.
The deal was put in place by Common Council in 2005 when the city was competing against Maine for the LNG terminal and the tax concession helped secure the location at Mispec.
Councillor Gerry Lowe, who spearheaded the initiative, estimates the city will lose out on 200 million dollars over the course of the 25 year deal.
Councillors Greg Norton and Bill Farren voted against the motion to repeal the tax concession late last year.
Norton says he’s more concerned with managing the funds the city has to work with rather than breaking deals.
Court documents have revealed Irving Oil is making 22.5 million dollars a year in guaranteed revenue from Canaport LNG with over 12 million just from leasing the land.
The company gets to pay 500 thousand dollars a year while the property tax bill, without the deal, would be in the neighbourhood of 8 million annually.
