BOMA BC worked with local BIAs, the Vancouver Board of Trade, the Urban Development Institute and the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses to lobby the City of Vancouver to shift two per cent of property taxes from businesses back to residents. Council considered the recommendation and ultimately agreed to shift two per cent of the tax burden back to residents over three years, beginning with one per cent in 2019. While this is not a massive decrease, it is a positive signal that some of our Council listened to our association and understands the burden faced by our business community. This is a significant win for all businesses across the City and we hope it will help inform conversations with the provincial government on how to protect small businesses from unpredictable rises in property taxes based primarily on development potential.

BOMA’s Manager of Membership, Kiomi Lutz, asked a group of members to tell us what value they get from their BOMA membership. The most common responses related to the opportunities provided to build relationships, meet vendors and quality of education. If you want to communicate the value of participating in BOMA with someone in your organization or a potential member, please share the attached testimonials with them.

Vancouver City Council has approved a new cooling tower registry, to take effect on January 1, 2020. BOMA worked with city staff to ensure that building owners could register at no cost. A summary and details can be found here: https://vancouver.ca/operating-permit.

The webpage provides a concise form through which owners can register to be notified when the online portal opens. Mandatory operating permits will be required for certain new and existing building water systems. For additional information, contact: operatingpermit@vancouver.ca.

Vancouver City Council approved a motion backing its Deep Emission Building Retrofits Program to support deep carbon reductions in non-City owned buildings. They approved a multi-year capital project budget and annual expenditure budget of $1.5 million for the Deep Emission Building Retrofits Program to be added to the 2019-2022 Capital Plan. Further, they requested staff develop an implementation and funding strategy for the overall program including the remaining $3.5 million for future years in advance of the 2020 Capital Budget. Council also recommended reintroducing its request to the Province of British Columbia for amendments to the Vancouver Charter to allow the City to implement a building energy benchmarking program. BOMA will keep you posted as these new programs unfold.

BOMA met with Vancouver Centre MP Hedy Fry and Adam Vaughan, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development and Housing and Urban Affairs, to discuss how the federal government can support more housing solutions for British Columbians.

Photo above L to R: Damian Stathonikos, BOMA BC; councillor Lisa Dominato;  councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung; David van Hemmen of Vancouver Board of Trade;  Charles Gauthier of DVBIA.

BOMA BC staff had several meetings to advocate for a more equitable distribution of property tax, after seven years of inaction by the City of Vancouver.

BOMA met with Vancouver NPA councillors Lisa Dominato and Sarah Kirby-Yung to seek their support for the proposed property tax shift of two per cent from businesses back to residents. These councillors ended up supporting our initiative, voting in favour of property tax shift, along with their NPA colleague councillor Rebecca Bligh and the three Green Party councillors.

Photo on right: BOMA BC and other business associations meet with Vancouver Green Party councillors to seek their support for a two per cent property tax shift as a way to help support local small businesses. 

The City of Vancouver's Chief Building Official, Patrick Ryan, spoke to BOMA members about the new Vancouver Building Bylaw. BOMA's next luncheon is the Awards Gala on Thursday, May 30.

On April 10, BOMA Canada convened several BOMA members to meet with the Federal Advisory Council on Climate Action. The Council is comprised of Steven Guilbeault and Tamara Vrooman, whose mandate includes advising the federal minister of the environment and climate change and the minister of finance on reducing emissions from the buildings sector. Their purpose was to facilitate dialogue between the councillors and key industry stakeholders so that all present could share perspectives on how to advance Canada’s sustainability goals vis-à-vis commercial real estate.