SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
City councillor Adrian Bell wants to adopt business improvement districts (BID) but local businesses aren't eager for another tax.

Yellowknife City Councillor Adrian Bell says the downtown area has declined and needs rejuvenation. He supports business improvement districts, which would tax businesses in a defined area with the funds used locally to enhance the grouped businesses. - Stewart Burnett/NNSL photo

"It is just another tax," confirmed Bell. "There's no doubt about it."

That was his response to concern that BIDs, an idea floating in council to set a localized tax for businesses in a certain area to receive targeted support, are just another government money grab.

"The current taxes aren't doing enough for the downtown," he continued. "We've had no recovery. Businesses are not interested in coming downtown, we've had a hard time attracting residents and there's been very little residential construction in the downtown core and transitional area."

A BID would carve out a zone of businesses to be taxed with the funds used for supporting those businesses in ways they couldn't do individually. This could include heightened security, marketing and beautification, which was cut from the city's last budget.

"If people are happy with the status quo, if they don't care about attracting shoppers back to the downtown, then there will be no convincing them," said Bell frankly. "And if workers who work in the downtown are satisfied with the atmosphere, and satisfied with the level of cleanliness, then they too are not going to be interested in this."

But there will be other businesses and office tenants, he said, who are interested in improving things, which he sees best done through the BID system.

"Ultimately it will boil down to how many people want to see change and how many people are happy with the status quo."

As a business owner since age 21, Bell said he's seen the decline of the downtown firsthand.

"I've seen the city's efforts over the years. I've seen what's been tried and mostly, in this instance, what is important is what hasn't been tried, and this is something that hasn't been tried."

He thinks bringing people with common interests together could achieve a lot. The city-wide chamber of commerce model, he explained, is less able to focus on a particular area like a BID would.

"That is really why BIDs emerged," said Bell. "Businesses in compact areas recognized that these larger organizations weren't really built to support them."

BIDs come in all shapes and sizes, he said, but the important thing is the geographic boundaries and making sure the groups in each zone have common interests.

On the city's website, an Exploring Business Improvement District document, which is a few years old, marks off areas around the downtown, Old Airport Road and old town as possible BIDs.

The document states a BID would be formed when majority of business support in a proposed zone is achieved. In its example of a possible funding formula for the downtown area, the levy is $1.69 per $1,000 property assessment for commercial properties. Single family residential properties are included in the levy at a lower rate.

Jeff Humble, director of planning and community development, explained that choices about the funding formula and whether residential properties are included would be up to the individual BIDs to decide.

Other cities in Canada have adopted the system, which Bell said is like a local improvement charge.

"The fact it's localized is the only reason this works anywhere," he said. "If it were [a general tax], you could just never get enough support for it because you can't spread the benefits out very far."

There are many possible models for how the BID would work. Some of these include a city staff position to aid the BID, hiring a third-party staff member for that role or zero city participation besides gathering the funds. Ultimately, these decisions are exclusively for the businesses involved to decide, Bell said.

"Without a doubt, in the early stages - let's call it an incubation period while the BID gets on its feet and establishes itself - I think it would have to have some city support," said Bell.

"I can't see any way around that, but it should definitely be short term, one or two years, and if the BID can't stand on its own two feet, it should be allowed to fizzle out."

Bell said the city might be at meetings on the BID idea but it's the business community that would have to determine its involvement, if any, and the parameters.

"The city should not have a management component here," he said. "This does have to be a business community initiative."

In a survey of local businesses by the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce, interest for the extra taxation a BID requires was low.

"The large majority of responses were not in favour of a business improvement district," said Deneen Everett, executive director of the chamber.

She said the chamber will not be actively pursuing a BID.

"It's an additional fee," said Everett. "A lot of businesses don't want to see an extra cost, especially now that we have that zero-per-cent tax increase for 2015. Businesses are looking for a break."

Everett called some of the benefits of BIDs "luxurious items" and said businesses just want to focus on the basics right now.

"However, there are some pros and we heard both sides of the issue," she said. "It can allow the business community to make some decisions for themselves on things that directly impact their businesses.. The choice is really up to the business community. Some people thought that would be a great way to revitalize the downtown area."

She said the chamber supports the city in gathering information and will determine a stance when that is done.

Bell said the job right now is to educate people about BIDs. He invites businesspeople to contact him if they're interested in the idea.

"This has to be a grassroots initiative," said Bell. "I can see that this probably isn't going to get started through city hall."