Towns and cities across British Columbia exempt millions of dollars worth of property each year.
Provincial laws require the exemptions of religious-owned buildings used for "public worship" and many municipalities go further and exempt all other properties owned by religious groups.
A few councils, however, have taken a different path. Some administer a local benefits test to all organizations seeking property tax exemptions, while others have a policy to reject all exemption requests.
We will be profiling some of these communities and encourage you to look into the rules in your own community. Share what you learn with us and we'll feature it here.
Join our campaign for fair property tax exemptions
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· January 19, 2023
On Monday, January 23, Saanich council will debate a motion calling on the province to eliminate the statutory exemptions for places of worship. The motion, "transition all statutory tax exemptions for places of worship to permissive tax exemptions," is being brought by Councillor Teale Phelps Bondaroff and would direct the Union...
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· June 23, 2022
The BC Humanist Association today renewed its call for a Secular BC in its response to the finance committee's consultations for Budget 2023. In its response, the organization calls for an end to funding of religious and elite private schools, the end of the statutory property tax exemption for places...
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Blog by Teale Phelps Bondaroff
· October 27, 2021
Without benefits tests for permissive tax exemptions (PTE), municipalities risk funding organizations that only provide services to their members, run commercial operations, exclude and discriminate against people or flout the law. This is exactly what the District of Saanich did at its meeting on Monday, October 25th when this municipal...
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Latest
· February 22, 2021
The BC Humanist Association released a report today calling on municipalities to adopt regular benefits tests for tax exemptions granted to places of worship. These tests, the report states, are necessary to ensure potential recipients of tax exemptions — which total millions each year — provide services that benefit the...
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News
· February 05, 2020
In November, the northern British Columbia community of Fort St John approved a new Financial Policy Framework that will require organizations "provide broad community benefits" to be eligible for property tax exemptions. Under the Community Charter, municipalities are required to exempt certain property like houses of worship from property taxes but...
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· May 14, 2019
Following a letter from the BC Humanist Association, councillors in the District of Saanich voted unanimously Monday night to move toward applying a public benefits test before granting property tax exemptions to religious groups in the municipality. The vote followed a staff report reviewing options for the District. It notes that...
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Blog by Ian Bushfield
· October 01, 2018
A group of 200 pastors lined up to denounce the province's sexual orientation and gender identity curriculum (SOGI 123).
The curriculum was developed under the previous provincial government and continues to be supported by the current government, the teachers' union, principals' associations, independent and First Nations schools associations.
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Blog by Ian Bushfield
· September 20, 2018
We've looked at how a few different communities treat religious property tax exemptions in BC and in most of those cases the policies have been long-established. In Summerland earlier this month, its council decided to change its policy.
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Blog by Ian Bushfield
· September 11, 2018
When a journalist from Saanich News reached out for a story on permissive tax exemptions in the District of Saanich, I decided to go through and look up the detailed policies for most of the municipalities around Victoria. Even within a very small region, we're able to see a wide...
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Blog by Ian Bushfield
· September 05, 2018
After releasing the responses we received to our survey of BC municipalities' various approaches to permissive tax exemptions for religious organizations, I spoke to Radio NL in Kamloops about their city's approach. Kamloops, like most cities in BC, does give permissive tax exemptions to religious properties and doesn't apply a...
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