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Alcohol tax has 'certain logic' – mayor Funds could help pay for downtown core policing, says Heyck
Simon Whitehouse
The Globe and Mail reported last month that Jason Delaurier, a councillor in the town of 3,900 people, wanted to introduce a bylaw that would see a three per cent surcharge on all alcohol sold to pay for community policing. Heyck, who has said one of his objectives in the new year is to find a way to hire more RCMP officers to police the downtown core, said Delaurier's concept demonstrates the overall effort by Canadian municipalities to find ways to pay for the services they need. “One of the challenges that municipalities face, and Yellowknife is no different, is the over-dependence on property taxes,” he said. “There is a need for municipalities to diversify their revenue streams. Legislatively (an alcohol tax) is not something we can do right now, but I think this conversation is happening in communities across Canada and it is something I think we should be discussing here as well.” Heyck said the territorial government would have to make changes to the NWT Liquor Act to allow the city to collect a portion of taxes collected on alcohol. He added the costs of alcohol-related crimes in the downtown core have a huge impact on the community. “When you think about the impacts of something like alcohol on the downtown core and how we try to address those and how we try to come up with the resources to address those, there is a certain logic in saying maybe (an alcohol tax) is a possibility that we could look at,” said Heyck. “But again it would require some legislative changes at the territorial level so that's a conversation I think council needs to have as we go forward.” Perry Smith, owner of the Liquor Shop at Stanton Plaza, said adding a tax on alcohol sales would lead to the illegal importation of alcohol to the city – or what he calls “leakage to the south” - and hurt local sales. Instead of looking at additional tax revenue, Smith said the city should simply cut expenditures. “As a businessman, I'm always skeptical when politicians are looking for new sources of revenue,” said Smith. “Any entity, whether it is a public or private entity has to work within its means.” Yellowknife RCMP detachment commander Staff Sgt. Colin White said he had seen the Swan River story in the news and although he has worked in a number of municipalities in Alberta during his career, it was the first time he had heard of the idea. He pointed out that it is important to consider the difference in how NWT municipalities contract their policing services versus how communities in other jurisdictions provide their services. It may be more difficult for Yellowknife to have such a policy than Swan River, he said. “In the Northwest Territories all of the policing is paid for by the GNWT so no city or town pays up here pays for their own policing,” said White. Jamie Koe, director of policy and planning with the GNWT's Department of Finance, said the NWT Liquor Commission applies uniform liquor markups across the territory which go into general revenues. That money is then appropriated by the legislative assembly for programs that benefit all NWT residents. The liquor commission reported sales of $46.3 million for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012, with $24.5 million going into GNWT coffers. “So there is no set pot for certain towns,” said Koe. “It goes into the pot and the legislative assembly decides how to divvy up that pot. There is no set process or policy for a community liquor tax. If the town were to approach the NWT, there would be quite ample discussions.”
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