BLACK PRESS — North Cowichan’s mayor said there are no hard feelings toward Catalyst Paper — which recently lost a court action to reduce the municipal taxes it pays.

Tom Walker said he’s pleased with the judge’s decision, but the municipality has been steadily decreasing heavy industrial taxes for several years and will continue to look for ways to cut even more.

“That will sure be the No. 1 discussion on the table (come budget time),” he said.

In August, after months of battling North Cowichan for a lower tax rate based on consumption, Catalyst took its case to court to seek a declaration the property tax rate is unreasonably high and therefore illegal.

Catalyst announced earlier this year it would only pay about $1.5 million to North Cowichan in municipal property taxes for 2009, leaving North Cowichan with a shortfall of about $5 million.

On Friday, Justice Peter G. Voith dismissed the action and ordered Catalyst to pay the municipality’s legal fees to defend against the action.

Crofton Mill boss Andre Bernier told the News Leader Pictorial the company is not happy with the judge’s decision and could appeal it.

“Basically we are disappointed by the judge’s decision because we believe we put a strong case forward,” he said.

“The company is actually reviewing the court’s decision with our counsel and will decide in the near future what our next step will be, but an appeal is not out of the question,” he said, adding the company will make a decision within 30 days.

Catalyst launched similar actions against Campbell River, Powell River and Port Alberni, all of which are awaiting rulings.

“Of the four towns, we did the largest shift last year, about $850,000 tax reduction for Catalyst,” said Walker.

The province also cut heavy industries’ taxes in half, and that took effect this year, he noted.

“While their (municipal) property taxes might be high, it’s about one per cent of their operating costs.”

Walker was unable to give an exact figure as to how much was spent on legal fees, but the municipality’s director of finance, Mark Frame, said it is in the “tens of thousands of dollars.”

Still, the mayor said he was “absolutely pleased” with Voith’s decision.

“Our citizens are following this quite closely and the people I talked to said they’re glad because it would be a little chaotic if we lost.

“The ruling tells us we can set the rate and the level of taxation for industry, residential or business properties.”

The mayor said he expects to get the legal analysis from the municipality’s lawyers this week. “The ruling says we have the right to set taxation rates, but we still have to continue on and decide for next year what would be a fair apportionment,” Walker said.

Catalyst is a taxpayer in North Cowichan and it provides good paying jobs and Walker said he and council want it to stay in the valley.

“So, we’ve got a lot of work to do on balancing this,” he said.

“Winning the court case is one step of the way, and there’s still the problem of what is fair for industry and what’s fair for residential.”