Thursday, October 29th, 2009 ::: City Hall: New By-Law

OMAC, the billboard industry organization, has come out swinging against the City of Toronto’s new signs by-law and billboard tax. This press release puts forward their position:

The Out-of-Home Marketing Association of Canada (OMAC) today requested the City of Toronto sign by-law project team defer presentation of its draft by-law to the Planning and Growth Committee scheduled for Nov. 4, 2009 and enter into meaningful discussions with out-of-home media companies about an appropriate by-law.

That’s exactly what OMAC said last time, on Tuesday, April 14, 2009 when Rosanne Caron  deputed to Planning and Growth Management Committee. In response, PG+M did exactly what she asked and passed the following motion introduced by Councillor Michael Thompson, directing more consultation:

Then, that statutory meeting on June 4, 2009 was delayed for even more consultation. OMAC has stated that consultation with the City have been meaningful, despite this line in the press release:

The City plans to arbitrarily impose a new by-law without proper consultation with the industry

…which is  a lie. In fact, in this letter [PDF] dated February 13th, 2009, Rosanne Caron states that the City has been receptive to the industry’s feedback:

“We are disappointed the City sign by-law project team chose to shut the industry out of a proper consultative process and is pushing forward with new untested rules and new unsubstantiated taxes that may devastate the industry financially and put at risk significant revenue earned by the City of Toronto as well as many small businesses,” said Rosanne Caron, President of OMAC.

That’s not what you said on February 13th, Rosanne. Besides, the City has conducted consultations out the wazoo. Here is a detailed list of the consultations the City has held [PDF]:

“This is not a fair, open or transparent process,” said Ms. Caron. “We have attempted to dialogue with the City over the past eighteen months but have never received a response of any kind concerning our many submissions including an independent economic analysis of the proposed billboard tax.”

More cynical lies from the professional obscurantists at OMAC. In fact, the City has responded to OMAC’s many submissions. Those responses are Appendix D of the Staff Report [PDF]:

The draft by-law will severely damage the out-of-home industry, its many dependent stakeholders in Toronto and ultimately reduce income to the City in the form of rent and taxes.

Curious. In fact, billboards on City of Toronto property are exempt from paying the billboard tax. As a result, any billboard on City property, including “street furniture” will earn the City at least the same amount of rent, if not more, since every competing billboard in the City will be subject to tax.

The City of Toronto is the single largest beneficiary of revenue from the Outdoor industry. OMAC members contribute $36.8 million in average annual revenue to the City through current lease agreements compared to $28.4 million in annual revenue to all private property owners.

The new billboard tax will increase revenues to the City over and above the estimated $11 Million in tax receipts as the City’s $28.4 Million/year worth of  billboards become tax-free signs that compete directly against taxable signs on private land. An economist would say that the City will capture the economic rent that accrues to its tax-free signs as the profitability of competing taxable signs is degraded.

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