|
(Posted
9:30 a.m., Nov. 8)
City unveils Orléans economic develop.m.ent plan
By
Fred Sherwin
Orléans Online
The
City of Ottawa's long-awaited economic develop.m.ent plan
for Orléans was unveiled during Tuesday's finance
and economic develop.m.ent committee meeting with little
fanfare.
The
plan seeks to accomplish two objectives. The first objective
is to attract knowledge-based employers to the area, and
the second is to improve Orléans' jobs to househols
ratio, which has been stuck at the 0.5 mark for the last
two decades, by 10 per cent.
The
city wide job to household ratio is 1.3. In order to improve
the Orléans ratio by 10 per cent will require a
net gain of 3,000 new jobs over the next five years.
The
economic develop.m.ent plan, which city staff have labled
the Community Improvement Plan or CIP, seeks to attract
knowledge-based industires such as wireless, photonics,
clean technologies, life sciences, aerospace and defence
to Orléans which has become overly dependent on
professional services and hospitality industry businesses.
The
city plans to attract new emergining-sector businesses
to Orleans through a tax-equivalent-financial inducement
or TIF. In essence the TIF will give developers a "tax
holiday" for all or a portion of a any increase in
municipal taxes resulting from property improvements.
For
example, if property taxes charged prior to develop.m.ent
or redevelop.m.ent was $10,000 per year, and because of
increased assessment arising from the value of the new
develop.m.ent, the property taxes increase to $100,000,
the tax increment would be $90,000.
Under
the economic develop.m.ent plan, the City will offer relief
from having to pay the incremental amount, or a predetermined
portion thereof, for a limited period as an incentive
to induce the property owner to invest in the property.
Before
the plan is finalized and implemented, the city plans
to hold a series of consultation sessions with Orléans
businesses and prospective businesses to determine how
best to proceed and define the types of businesses and
program details that would be most appropriate in encouraging
businesses to locate in the area.
The
economic develop.m.ent implementation plan presented to
the finance committee on Tuesday makes no mention of how
the city plans to measure the success, or failure, of
the program.
Some
committee members seemed more upset with the concept of
offering a tax holiday to developers than the were about
whether or not the plan would actually work.
Kanata
South Coun. Allan Hubley took issue with the propoed tax
inducements, warning that the businesses would leave once
the hoilday had ended.
But
Blackburn Hamlet Coun. Rainer Bloess said the concerns
were unwarranted, pointing out that the tax holiday would
be offered to develop.m.ents that wouldn't exist without
he Community Improvement Plan.
“We’re
not shovelling cash at anybody,” Bloess said. “What
we want to see is the building that comes in with the
jobs that come in.”
City
council will get a chance to debate the proposed plan
at their next meeting on Nov. 14.
(This
story was made possible thanks to their generous support
of our local business
partners.)
Visit
www.orleansonline.ca's main page
|
