Freedom Flyer 10

For months, people in the Bronte area have been working to establish a downtown Business Improvement Area, similar to that of the one in downtown Oakville.

But, due to the recent efforts of Marc Emery of the three-year-old Freedom Party, those efforts may prove fruitless.

Emery was in downtown Oakville and Bronte on Saturday, passing out pamphlets entitled "Warning! BIA's are hazardous to your economic health and independence," telling merchants about the local business group and urging them not to establish one in Bronte.

Why attack something as innocuous as a local downtown business group?

Well, it seems Emery is of the belief local BIA's are unfair to local business people.

Why, he asks, pay an additional tax to improve government-owned land when business people already pay business taxes and other extra dollars to operate their businesses? And he claims the benefits derived from the BIA's are questionable.

To be sure, people have in the past questioned the benefits of the downtown Oakville Business Improvement Area association, claiming they do not see in direct dollars the improvement in their business.

However, in downtown Oakville, the BIA has always represented a voice for business people and acts as a successful lobbying mechanism for local merchants.

In short, it is much more than just an association bent on placing a few potted plants on the sidewalks.

In the past couple of years, the BIA has been instrumental in lobbying for the beautification of downtown Oakville and providing input into major decisions such as the Lakeshore Road/George Street development.

The BIA has always recognized the unique attraction of downtown Oakville for both merchants and consumers and has consistently worked to improve it with local government.

Emery doesn't believe BIA's in the Golden Horseshoe have yielded such great results.

And in Oakville, he tried to convince people not to set up a BIA in Bronte, pointing to the extra taxation as a big disadvantage.

And he seems to have been marginally successful, according to one merchant who has been working to encourage business people to form a BIA. Should one-third of the merchants oppose the formation of the BIA on Feb. 12, council can scrap the necessary by-law.

The major purpose for the BIA in any community is to compel all business owners in an area to put their share towards street beautification and business promotion.

In downtown Oakville, the efforts of the BIA have resulted in the increasing commitment of dollars by town council into that area of town. And, without the BIA, the work along the Lakeshore this year would have been undertaken without provincial funding from the Commercial Area Improvement Program.

In all likelihood, the high cost of undertaking such a program without the funds from the province and the contributions towards the work from the local merchants would have made town councillors shy away from it.