Prince Rupert Council to take Tax Sale resolution for consideration at upcoming Local Government meetings

When municipal representatives gather this May for the North Central Local Government Association meetings in Fort St. John, they'll have some reading material to look over, courtesy of the City of Prince Rupert.

Last Monday night, Council voted to have a resolution on Tax Sale issues put forward at the May gathering, the first step towards introducing the resolution to UBCM sessions in the fall.

While the Mayor didn't mention the incentive for his resolution by  name, it seems pretty clear that the resolution comes from the City's lengthy experiences with issues from the Sun Wave saga.

A long, drawn out legal battle that exhausted much of the city's time and provided for significant legal costs as part of the legal proceedings with the Chinese owners.

You can review some of that tortuous trail here.

As for the resolution, as the Mayor outlined to Council last week, it is designed to request that the Province "amend the Community Charter and Local Government Act, so a Municipality has clear title to a property, as a result of the municipal tax sale process, can not be disputed in a court of law or other tribunal more than once"

The main theme of the resolution is to remove the current multi-appeal scenario that provides for a hardship for a municipality, which can at times last for years.

After the introduction in the Monday night session, the motion was adopted by the Council members.

It marks the second time that the City will be seeking to move their proposal forward, their attempt to gain support for it last year apparently did not resonate with their fellow politicians at the UBCM sessions in Vancouver last September.

The hope is that with a clearer resolution to submit this year, that the city will find success this time around.

Those that will be attending the North Central Local Government Meeting Association in May will be taking it with them to seek further support from Northern British Columbia municipalities.

The city will also be hoping to find some room on the agenda for its resolution at this falls UBCM gathering in Whistler.

You can review the Mayor's talking points from the City's Video Archive, he introduces the resolution at the 2 hour 25 minute mark.

We have more background on items that were up for discussion at City Council last week on our Archive of the February 24th session.

As well, more items of note on municipal items can be found on our Discussion points from Council archive.