Since our last newsletter, a vast amount of activity and progress has been achieved in Freedom Party's province-wide campaign against Business Improvement Areas (BIAs).
As you may recall, BIAs are the consequence of a provincial-municipal scheme aimed at compelling business people within an arbitrarily selected area to join a "business association". As "members" of this forced "association", they are required to pay an additional tax to the municipality. Ostensibly, the tax is used to 'improve' and maintain the appearance of the business area, and for collective advertising to promote the area. This tax is permanent and under existing legislation cannot be abolished except by political pressure at the local level (City Council must vote to abolish the BIA).
Our BIA brochure, newly revised and updated, outlines why this is extremely hard to do.
Originally (August 1986), Freedom Party designed the BIA Warning brochure to counter BIA proposals in two districts in London. But when Bob Adams (of Adams Rent-All of Toronto) found out about our campaign, the Fp brochure soon found itself being used in the fight to defeat an existing BIA on Avenue Road in North York, where one of Adams' businesses was located and where opposition to the BIA scheme was intense.
Before we knew what hit us, a major campaign was underway. Its purpose? To collect names of BIA opponents, to co-ordinate the fight against BIAs at both the local and provincial level, to trade ideas and successful techniques, and to inspire morale.
By December 3, 1986, Freedom Party members and supporters had delivered over 4,000 brochures (accompanied by a covering letter outlining why we were delivering the brochure) to 15 different areas around the province. All areas were either being considered for designation as a future business improvement area, or were areas with an existing BIA whose members were known to be in opposition to the BIA scheme.
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THE AREAS (as delivered) September: London: Richmond St. (250); London East (100); October: Toronto: Yonge & Eglinton (1,300); Yonge, north of Lawrence (North York); Bayview Ave., south of Eglinton (East York) (200); Highland Creek Village (Scarborough) (100); London: London East -2nd delivery (100); November: Toronto: Avenue Road (North York) (300); Dufferin Ave., south of Lawrence (North York) (100); Bloor St., between Dufferin & Christie (250); Keswick (a town on Lake Simcoe) (125); Newmarket (100); Aurora (125); Burlington (350); December: Bronte (a suburb of Oakville) (200); Hamilton, (James St. North) (200) |
Richmond Row and East London's Centretown:
In London, Freedom Party's BIA Warning campaign concentrated on two different areas: Richmond Row, a business community of some affluence located in a fashionable boutique district of Richmond Street where 250 businesses were being considered for BIA status, and in Centretown, a budget-ethnic business district, where an existing BIA was attempting to expand its one-block jurisdiction into a nine block area by annexing the neighbouring eight blocks.
Both areas responded most favourably to Freedom Party's initiative. In fact, some businesses began to petition against the BIA schemes even before any official action had been initiated by the local municipality.
In London East, our campaign was so threatening to BIA organizers that they reacted by publishing an editorial in their BIA area newspaper, the Centretown Community News. It was a costly error on their part. It probably never occurred to them that we might actually respond to the arguments --- which is, of course, exactly what we did.
In fact, our detailed rebuttal was so effective that it resulted in the resignation of the BIA's Executive Director. Since the BIA director was operating under a mandate to expand the existing BIA (and this was now impossible, thanks to us), she was compelled to resign. (It was not the first time Fp activists in London forced the resignation or dismissal of a top BIA executive in London. In 1982, Marc Emery and Robert Metz waged a campaign that forced the dismissal of the Downtown London BIA Executive Director).
Toronto [North York]:
Avenue Road businessman Robert Adams of Adams Rent-All had been fighting the BIA on his street for five years, and his perseverance was noted in our last issue of Freedom Flyer. Mr. Adams distributed 300 of our BIA Warning brochures to his neighbours and fellow merchants through his Avenue Road Business Association newsletter. Last March, the North York Council (after sacking Bob Adams and his supporters who controlled the BIA board at the time), set November 1986 as the time for a general meeting and vote on support for the BIA.
At that meeting, there were three representatives speaking against the BIA and three in favour. The three opposed were articulate Avenue Road businesspeople, including Bob Adams himself. Ironically, the three speakers supporting the BIA concept were all government representatives, one from the North York Mayor's office, one from the City of Toronto BIA Association, and another from the Government of Ontario. Not one person from the Avenue Road business area was willing to speak in favour of having a BIA!
The reason was embarrassingly clear: of the 144 eligible voters attending the meeting, 124 voted in favour of abolishing the BIA, versus 20 votes of support!
During the meeting, Freedom Party Action Director Marc Emery was there to introduce himself and to make a few points, but the first person to introduce himself to Emery was an official from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs. He noted that Fp's BIA brochure had been thoroughly studied in his Ministry and that Fp members had written to the Premier asking him to abolish BIAs.
Clinton Collier, a BIA consultant with the province, remarked, "At first we laughed it off, but I admit (after the vote) we are taking it a lot more seriously." (In a later December conversation with Emery, Mr. Collier let us know that "we've had to make several dozen copies of your brochure for all the people in the department, so be sure to send us copies of your new (revised) BIA brochure.")
The meeting generated provincial media coverage in the Toronto Star and good community coverage in the North York Mirror.
For us, the event was highlighted by an amusing vignette that occurred when North York Alderman Milton Berger (in an interview with North York Mirror reporter Christine Kurzurski) accused Freedom Party of receiving its financing from big malls and corporations, whose only interest was to ward off competition from neighbourhood businesses!
Nevertheless, on December 1, 1986, North York City Council reluctantly voted to disband the Avenue Road BIA. Bob Adam's hard work finally paid off and set a terrific precedent for other communities struggling to get rid of their existing BIAs.
Freedom Party visited the Brant Street area of Burlington's downtown in late November and received a great deal of information and support from Burlington merchants forced into Ontario's most expensive BIA --- the average business BIA tax is over $750 per year!
James Street North in Hamilton has had a BIA for a year and a half, but opposition to it is articulate, widespread, and organized. Our brochure was extremely well received when it was delivered in early December. Press coverage in Hamilton and Burlington was positive and substantial.
The nearby community of Bronte, a suburb of Oakville is in the midst of petitioning to stop the formation of a BIA and Freedom Party is responsible for organizing the drive in mid-January, to beat the establishment of the BIA within the 60-day time limit expiring in mid-February. Later in January, Freedom Party members from Oakville, Mississauga, and Metro Toronto will be delivering information to BIAs in Oakville and Mississauga.
In Aurora, where Emery had three separate meetings with local merchants, a huge majority of businesses were opposed to their BIA. With the Avenue Road victory over the BIA concept, Freedom Party looked forward to Aurora becoming the next community to be freed from the grip of BIAs. The businesses of Yonge Street in Aurora had been opposing their BIA for five years (the same period of time it took the Avenue Road BIA to be abolished), and with Freedom Party assistance and the dedicated opposition of merchants and businesses, Aurora City Council abolished their BIA on Wednesday, December 17, 1986. Congratulations, Aurora!
Two down, two hundred and fifty to go.
After four months of serious commitment to our campaign against BIAs, what next?
For starters, a newly revised BIA-Warning brochure has been printed for all future campaign deliveries, adopting a more province-wide perspective. Additionally, Freedom Party will be publishing a specialized anti-BIA newsletter, BIA Alert!, which will be mailed to all BIA inquiries and interested parties. Handsome anti-BIA buttons and cards for mailing to the government asking for changes in the BIA legislation are available now and have been widely distributed to affected businesspeople. All this will help substantially in creating a united front to oppose the current BIA legislation and forced associations.
Most significantly, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs has requested several of our revised copies when they are released. Apparently they are considering changes to the existing legislation. We don't know whether they plan to make it more restrictive or less, but Freedom Party is also preparing an official recommendation with regard to the existing legislation.
If you know of a BIA in your city or town, or if you hear of one being considered, please inform us immediately.
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last updated on April 28, 2002
