In a contentious meeting that ran late into Wednesday evening, Toronto’s Planning and Growth Management Committee unanimously recommended that City Council adopt a proposed bylaw and tax on billboards.
The decision delivers another blow to members of the Out-of-Home Marketing Association of Canada, which has consistently opposed the new measures on the grounds that the city’s economic rationale and general understanding of the out-of-home advertising industry is flawed. In particular, OMAC has stated that the amount that would be collected each year from sign owners under the proposed third-party billboard tax–roughly $10 million–exceeds the $8 million in total annual earnings claimed by its members.
On this point, the out-of-home industry did win a small victory Wednesday night.
While the Committee recommended new signage regulations–which include location-dependent pricing and a requirement to renew sign permits every five years–as well as the general notion of a billboard tax, it did not approve the specific tax level proposed and called for more debate on the economic issues.
For OMAC president Rosanne Caron, this was a small sliver of light on an otherwise disappointing evening.
“It’s a good thing for us because [city] staff has never shared with us their economic rationale for this tax,” said Caron. “Obviously, some of the people on the committee [Wednesday] night realized that they don’t have the rationale, and that’s why they didn’t approve the tax level.”
Council is scheduled to debate the issue Nov. 30 and Dec. 1.
“What we’re asking for between now and then is that the city do due diligence and actually field-test the bylaw,” said Caron. “And we want access to their economic report that’s going to go to Council.”
Caron said the meeting, which was slated to begin early Wednesday afternoon, was delayed for roughly two hours and had to be moved from a small committee room to the Council’s main chamber due to the volume of attendees. She said more than 50 deputations were given from those in favour of and opposed to the new bylaw and tax.
However, Caron said David Amborski, the economist who developed the proposed billboard tax on behalf of the city, did not appear in the room until after she and the other deputants had spoken. Caron believes the timing of Amborski’s presentation reflects the city’s lack of transparency and consultaion with the out-of-home industry in the development of new regulations over the past 18 months.
“They actually hid their economist and waited until all 50 deputations were made, and then they brought him out,” said Caron. “Because they hid him until after the deputations, there was no opportunity for us to respond to anything he said or question his assumptions, because we don’t have an opportunity to speak at that point.
“It was very sneaky.”
If approved, the new rules and tax would take effect on July 1, 2010.
Calls to the City of Toronto’s Building department were not returned as of press time.
