Re: Letter: We have to have one policy for all when it comes to tax penalties
I am supremely disappointed to not see any response or follow up by page editor, letters or most appropriately Mountain View County, in response to Hans Ullmanns’ letter.
I see no possible justification for forgiving the $187,000 penalty for Whitecap Resources’ lack of timely payment.
The $187,000 that reeve Albers et al summarily forgave represents two per cent of our total municipal tax revenue. I can think of many productive applications for this large sum of money.
Why would I care? I pay an exorbitant $7,500 annually in county taxes. For this I receive gravel roads to town, no water service, no septic service or garbage disposal. To clarify perspective, this represents my annual tax amount for 25 years.
I would have been more in favour of a tax lottery to forgive a constituent's account than to, without any justifiable reason, forgive a profitable oil company’s poor management. There are consequences for regular ratepayers, why not for Whitecap?
The good corporate citizen ploy doesn’t wash if you check around with farmers/ranchers in the area. Why have penalties for some and not others? These are our tax dollars. A $187,000 gift for Whitecap? Why?
Who is holding our council accountable and how will this shortfall they have created be remedied?
As a taxpayer, I need solid reasoning to explain this arbitrary gift. The optics are pointing to glaring favouritism or worse.
Janice Gagnon,
Mountain View County