Businesses throughout Drumheller may soon see an end to their annual business tax.
    At their meeting on January 14, Drumheller Town Council defeated a motion to established the business tax rate for 2013 and directed administration to come up with alternatives to generate the same amount of revenue.
    The proposal presented at the February 11 meeting of Town Council was to replace the business tax by collecting the same revenue from the non-residential property tax. In effect, the Town would be revenue neutral with the change.
    “This seems to be just a change in mechanism from something archaic to one that is more common. With things being revenue neutral, it’s quite likely in many cases, business owners will still be paying a similar amount, it’ll just reach them in a different way,” said Councillor Andrew Berdahl.
    The decision to seek alternatives to replace the business tax was made after surveying other communities and finding none subscribed to the tax. In addition, the Town is aiming to eliminate noncompliance in regards to the tax.
    “We did a poll of any community our size or larger and we found Calgary is phasing out their business tax, Edmonton and Red Deer have a section which is for revitalization of the business areas. No other communities our size have a business tax,” said Bill Wulff, acting director of Corporate Services.
    “Currently, the business owner is getting charged the value of the business tax. However, there is $23,000 (27 per cent noncompliance) outstanding that we cannot collect, because the buildings aren’t owner occupied and we can’t apply the outstanding tax to them.”
    Councillor Jay Garbutt agreed it was time to make the change.
    “With 27 per cent noncompliance, it behooves us to do something to make it easier to collect these outstanding fees,” said Garbutt.
    With the proposal, non-residential property owners would make up the difference.
    “The downside is, if we add the revenue to commercial property taxes, the property will probably transfer the difference to their renter or, if the building is unoccupied, will have to pay themselves,” said Wulff.
    The business tax was charged to business owners in Drumheller and was calculated as a percentage of the property assessment for the building it occupied.
    A motion to direct administration to collect the revenue through the non-residential assessment was passed 5-1 by Council, with Councillor Lisa Hansen-Zacharuk opposed.

    It’s the end of an era. Hollywood is calling it quits on making film. Everything is entering the digital age.
    “After over a hundred years, film is coming to an end,” said Napier Theatre owner Jeff Larson, who prides himself in having one of the few remaining film theatres in Alberta.
    Hollywood studios recently decreed they would be severely cutting back the number of film prints they would be making. The announcement essentially forces theatres across North America, including Drumheller’s Napier Theatre, to make the switch to digital projectors.
    It is expected the Napier will have a new digital projector ready in time for the summer blockbuster season.
    “May is when they start releasing all the big blockbusters, like Iron Man 3, which we want to have opening week,” said Larson.
    However, despite the change, Larson will keep his film projectors and collection of film reels. The projection booth will continue to house the projectors that Larson has lovingly laboured over for years and have shown thousands of movies will remain.
    “This building is 60 years old and the projectors have been here the whole time. We are keeping our film equipment intact, so we will still be able to run film. Our projectors can also run 70 millimetre film and, as far as I know, we are the only theatre in Alberta and one of the few in Canada that can do that,” said Larson.

Napier Theatre owners Kathy (left) and Jeff Larson are making the switch to digital this spring, although for the two film buffs, the change signals the end of an era of film. For a hundred years, film prints have been used to show movies across North America.

    The change, according to Larson, is so studios can save some money.
    However, the switch to digital does offer some new opportunities for the Napier.
    “It does give us an opportunity to do new things. You can plug a satellite dish or even a game console into it if people wanted to have an afternoon playing games on the big screen,” said Larson.
    “All the Hollywood studios are changing over. It’s basically to cut costs. Your average film prints costs about $2,000 to make. Multiply that by thousands in just North America, and add shipping and storage costs, it adds up,” said Larson. “Unfortunately, they’re not passing the savings on to people, like us, who own the movie theatres.”
    A new digital projector can cost roughly $50,000.
    For those watching movies at the Napier, there should be no difference to quality,
    “I still like watching film over digital. On film, unless you’re watching something that has never been run before, you’ll see imperfections like dust or scratches. With digital, it’s different, because it’s so clean and clear. But, the average person probably won’t see the difference,” said Larson.
    Over the past five years, film prints have slowly been phased out of production. The result has been fewer prints for theatres to share. Often times this means small community theatres have to wait weeks before getting a copy of a new movie.
    For the time being, residents are welcome to come to the Napier, enjoy a movie and popcorn, and have an authentic movie experience. Larson, always proud of his vintage projectors, is also happy to show them off to those interested.
    “We just want people to keep coming to the shows. With community support, we can keep bringing in first-run shows,” said Larson.