Common Council voting to ask for a short extension of the April 30 deadline given by province to confirm that they want to move forward with repeal of the LNG tax deal and they’re aware of the potential implications.
Council voted back in December to ask the province to repeal the 25 year concession which allows Irving Oil to pay $500,000 in property taxes a year, whereas without a deal, that would be more like $8-million a year.
Council has also voted to tell Service NB the city wants to establish a fixed timeline for reassessing the facility, and to get a recommended response to the province’s letter sent on April 7 from provincial Minister of Environment and Local Government Brian Kenny which said the province was prepared to move forward with repeal as long as the province “is assured it is not financially impacted as a result.”
The deadline extension being asked for is so that it coincides with the last regular council meeting on May 2 before the May 9 elections. As for whether anything could be finalized at this meeting, mayor Mel Norton says he’s not certain.
“It will depend on what’s in that’s report. I don’t want to pre-judge what the city manager and his staff might bring forward,” says mayor Norton. “It will depend in part on the work and the research they do over the next couple weeks.”
The mayor calls the reassessment of the LNG facility a complex process.
