Council deserves full support for its decision to waive the building-permit fees for commercial projects in the core. The question of the fees has arisen because council has given exemptions to two companies that could have afforded to pay them. Council gave an exemption to Manulife Financial worth $12,420 for massive renovations to the King Centre mall where Manulife now has one of its offices. It also exempted the Cora Group from paying fees worth $22,124 for renovations for three downtown buildings. They are among 18 fees waived worth $130,000. Although small businesses may be more swayed by the exemption policy to move downtown than large companies, council is wise to have an across-the-board policy. Coun. Tom Galloway was right when he said, "You can't discriminate. You can't say, 'Well, you know, you're a Fortune 500 company, and you don't qualify.' " Council, in fact, would get into more problems and be accused of showing favouritism if it rejected its current policy.

The exemption policy is part of council's attempt to rejuvenate the core and this goal is in the interests of all the residents of Kitchener and Waterloo Region. The entire region's image suffers if the core is allowed to become shabby. Encouraging businesses to locate there has a compounding effect, helping other businesses stay in the core. The loss of revenue from the exemptions is a small price to pay for the benefit to the overall community.