At its Feb. 27 council meeting, the Town of Greater Napanee voted to imposed an additional $460 fee on non-profit organizations for putting up their flags and banners. Unfortunately, this new tax is not what it appears to be on first reading.
In drafting the by-law, the town decide to give one non profit an exemption. However, when Napanee Pride asked for the same consideration, council refused outright stating that the town had an obligation to make sure it was being fair to everyone. Given the circumstances, this line of logic is difficult to process, as excluding some from a by-law does not make sense if your goal is to be fair.
However, this situation becomes far more problematic when one considers there are currently only two groups putting-up banners in the downtown, and Napanee Pride is one of them. In this case, council is forcing one user to pay for the town’s services, while the other get’s the work done at taxpayer’s expense.
The fact that this new by-law only applies to one group, Napanee Pride, makes it appear that the town is targeting them, and putting up a series of financial roadblocks to prevent them from carrying out their mandate of creating greater visibility and understanding within the community.
If council really wants to be fair to all it should remove the by-law.
Tony Balasevicius
Greater Napanee