Sudbury city councillor to mining companies: pay up for travelling pavement

The idea of taxing mining companies for hauling ore on city roads is set to be debated once again at an Oct. 26 Greater Sudbury city council meeting.

It's an old complaint at Sudbury city hall mining companies don't pay taxes underground, so municipal coffers aren't as full as they could be.

Three years ago, former Mayor John Rodriguez lobbied for a slice of the half-billion in mining taxes collected every year by the Ontario government.

At the time, the province told him to drop it, but he said it was important to keep at the issue.

"It's like that Chinese water torture," Rodriguez said.

"You have to keep repeating the message again and again and again."

'Approach is fair'

City councillor Andre Rivest is now taking a different approach to the same issue.

He wants the type of royalties paid by sand and gravel producers to apply to mines as well.

Those companies pay 7.5 cents for every tonne shipped on city roads. That added up to $195,000 last year for Greater Sudbury.

Rivest said a mining royalty could help the city keep its roads from crumbling.

"There's only so much tax dollars available and people only have so much ability to pay taxes," he said.

"It might not be always the best way to just turn to ratepayers and have a tax increase."

Rivest will ask his fellow city councillors to support the idea at the Oct. 26 meeting.

He's hoping that then, other Ontario cities and towns will help to lobby the province to change the law.

"This is not a Sudbury issue, per se, this is something every mining municipality in Ontario is being faced with, he said.

"I believe this approach is fair."