Prince George city council has unanimously rejected three options to reduce or limit property tax exemptions for local churches, temples, mosques and other places of worship.
Houses of worship are exempt from property taxes under provincial legislation, but land, parking lots or other property connected to those places or worship are not. The city offers a 100 per cent tax exemption to qualifying faith organizations for those taxable portions of their property, city director of finance Kris Dalio told council on Monday.
As of the 2020 tax roll, there were 50 places of worship that qualified for the city’s permissive tax exemption, for a total of $270,246 in tax breaks. The single largest tax break for a faith organization was $118,805, while the 49 others were $11,428 or less.
Coun. Brian Skakun had seconded the motion in October that resulted in the report being prepared for city council, but said he heard loud and clear from the city’s faith organizations that the move would cause them significant hardship.
“I wanted it to come here so we can deal with it once and for all,” Skakun said. “The fear it has created that they might lose some of their tax grant… it has really been hard on them. I don’t think clawing back $270,000 or almost $300,000 is worth it. These churches and places of faith do so much incredible work. I don’t want to see any of these organizations see any change of their tax status.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has been especially hard on faith organizations, which have been prohibited from holding in-person services for weeks and months at a time, he said.
“These churches, like everybody else, have gone through some tough, tough years,” Skakun said. “The donations have severely dropped off. It’s not the right move and it’s not the right time.”
Coun. Susan Scott, who has served as a board member of the Prince George Salvation Army community council and as the chaplain for the Prince George Fire Rescue Service, the local branch of the Royal Canadian Legion and Rocky Mountain Rangers Army Cadets, said she has previously gone through the city’s application process for the permissive tax exemption and it is thorough and detailed.
“A great many of the services (faith organizations provide) were the result of the church filling in the gap, picking up the slack in our society,” Scott said. “(But) I also know of certain faith communities in the city that also sublet part of their property.”
Coun. Kyle Sampson, who brought forward the motion in October requesting the report back to council, said his concern is the big gap between the top permissive tax exemption recipient and all the others in the city. He said the purpose of the tax exemption is to provide support to faith groups, not tax relief for real estate investments.
“…(Is) that entire property being used for community use in one way or another?” he asked. “That is a significant gap. But as long as it is meeting the criteria, I am put at ease.”
However, Sampson said, his motion was never intended to take away from the many valuable services faith organizations provide in the city.
“As a long-standing social service provider in this community, I want to acknowledge all of the support I’ve gotten from all of the churches over the years. The food, blankets and all kinds of things for people in need – and these are from the homes of parishoners,” Coun. Murry Krause said. “I don’t think this is the way to get at one tax exemption that is over $100,000. If there is one outlier, that needs to be handled in a different way.”
Mayor Lyn Hall said he heard from concerned faith leaders about this issue over the weekend, but equally from non-profit groups.
“This has not just isolated our church communities, it gone to the non-profit organizations who are concerned that we are going to move forward with some new plan for them as well. That concerned me, obviously,” Hall said. “I would just as soon put this to rest tonight. For me… I will not support any changes to our permissive tax exemption programs.”
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