Philip Davies led a team including Darryl Anderson of Wave Point Consulting Ltd. and David Lane of Lane Property Advisors Inc. for this study for the Union of British Columbia Municipalities and the BC Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development. The purpose of the project was to assess the impact of property taxation on business decisions related to major industrial facilities defined as Class 4 properties under BC’s Assessment Act.

The analysis encompassed major business decisions including investment in new facilities, ongoing operations and temporary closures, re-investment in existing plants, and economic obsolescence and plant closure. The study includes detailed case studies for representative major industrial sectors from a sample selected to illustrate the impact of industry life and commodity price cycles on the sensitivity of business reactions. Industry views on the impacts of property taxes were obtained from extensive interviews with representatives from a wide selection of companies encompassing the major sectors in the Class 4 category.

Property tax