Vancouver missing out on millions in revenue

I found an older, but great resource which in 1994 calculated the lost property taxation revenue for municipalities in the lower mainland. By exempting churches from property taxes, the 12 municipalities around Vancouver lost out on over $6.2 million per year in revenue, with nearly half of that coming from Vancouver city.

After 16 years of rapid growth, Vancouver is obviously out on a significant source of revenue that could be used to offset residential or commercial tax increases, or to sustain our financially strapped school system.

At the very least, the threat of taxation can be used to push less socially-minded congregations into giving something back to the community.

Announcing the Vancouver Secular Party project

Welcome to the blog for the Vancouver Secular Party.

We are not currently a registered electoral organization, but are a group of secular-minded individuals in the lower mainland who want to have our issues heard. This group may in the future seek to register itself so we can run candidates for the 2011 Vancouver municipal election.

A part of this discussion is inspired by a post by Ian Bushfield. And discussions are also occurring on Facebook.

We will likely be holding our inaugural meeting in the next month and until then are looking for interested individuals (even those who are not residents of Vancouver). To make this project a success we will need lots of volunteers, money and supporters.

Stay tuned for more updates, or email Ian for more information on how to help out.