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Tuesday, November 23, 1999
Chair cool to Kanata mayor's game plan
Council to debate report
Kanata Mayor Merle Nicholds' refusal to budge on tax concessions for the Ottawa Senators spells doom for the beleaguered hockey club, Regional Chair Bob Chiarelli says.
Nicholds won't soften her stand on cutting the Corel Centre a tax break, setting the stage for a stormy debate on the Senators' tax status tonight at a Kanata council meeting.
"If Mayor Nicholds has her way, it could be the death knell for the Senators," said Chiarelli after a heated 90-minute meeting with Nicholds at Kanata City Hall.
'PRETTY BIG TAX CUT'
Topping tonight's agenda will be a city staff report released yesterday that estimated wiping out the Corel Centre tax bill would hike the city's commercial tax rates by 6.7%.
Nicholds said she will put forward a motion tonight putting the Corel Centre in a tax class with large shopping centres, a move that would save the Sens $600,000 annually on its $4.5 million property tax bill -- "a pretty big tax cut" in the Kanata mayor's view.
"I can't support a tax subsidy," Nicholds said. "People seem to forget this is a multi-million-dollar business with players making millions.
"They were built as a private sector business and they can't be treated like a municipal arena."
The province announced last month it would match property tax cuts on the Corel Centre from the region and the city of Kanata, a potential $4.2 tax break -- less than half the $10-12 million in tax relief Senators majority owner Rod Bryden says he needs by early December before looking for a new owner and location for the club.
Kanata Coun. Richard Rutkowski said the staff report gives the federal government "a way out" of the political minefield surrounding tax fairness for Canadian NHL teams.
"The federal government has said from day one that all levels (of government) have to be on board. This by no means solidifies Kanata's position as being on board," he said.
But Nicholds said the federal government is shirking its responsibility to help small-market Canadian NHL teams.
HARD-LINE STANCE
"Once again, they'll be downloading on the property taxpayers the whole future of the NHL," she said.
Chiarelli said Nicholds' hard-line stance shows she's not prepared to pitch in more than $75,000 -- the city's portion of the Senators' property tax bill -- to keep the team in the city.
But Nicholds said she welcomes tonight's debate "to basically right a wrong" and give Bryden what he asked for -- tax fairness in relation to other businesses.
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