Candidate for Councillor
This is Jonathan hazzard, here are my answers,
1. If elected, I would repeal the vacancy tax, why?
It’s simply not fair, it’s not right, it’s discriminatory, and unethical. Vacant home owners are people too, why should they be taxed triple the rate of others when they use less services? It sends an unwelcome message to vacant homeowners, and tries to force their hand to either rent or sell their property. Homeowners should have the right to do whatever they want with their homes as long as it’s within the confines of the law.
2. What ideas do you have to fund, incentivize or otherwise address housing in Canmore, aside from a vacancy tax?
First, I believe we are already building hundreds, or thousands of affordable housing units There seems to be a sort of knee jerk mentality, and a danger of over building. In answer to your question, we could have a property sub tax with lower taxes for affordable housing projects, we could rely more on the private sector, in particular the tourism industry to build staff housing, and we could possibly introduce a tax levy for tourism, but I am not entirely in favour of that either.
3. How will you bring more accountability and effective governance to the Council and Administration?
For more accountability, we could have more frequent, independent audits to council and administration, and make them public.
4. Do you support Canmore pursuing Resort Municipality Status as a means of raising funds for the operation of the Town? Why or why not?
I am not sure if I would support resort municipality status. Tourists bring in on average $1,000,000 per day in revenue to Canmore, we would want to ensure they feel welcome, not being overly taxed, and ensure congestion, and paid parking remains at a minimum.
5. Do you believe the province is supportive of the vacancy tax initiative?
No, I do not feel the province is in support of the vacancy tax initiative based on the recent communication of the Premier.
6. Why do you think the town spends so much money on external consultants, including lawyers? Is that a worthwhile spend?
Why do we spend so much money on external consultants and legal fees? Probably because they did not make the right decisions to begin with. I do not know how much they spend on external legal/consultation, but it’s probably in the millions? This money could be saved and used to support affordable housing and other important projects rather than the vacancy tax. This is one reason why I am running, to reduce waste and live within a viable budget.