I didn't know how embed the article but here is the text.
Should churches and religious organizations continue to receive automatic tax exemptions?
Should community groups?
A couple of years ago, the little town of Gibsons, on British Columbia's Sunshine Coast, began to ask those questions in earnest. Squeezed between a contracting economy and a provincial government that was off-loading costs to municipal governments, the town, like many other small towns across the province, had to account for every tax dollar it collected and spent.
So in the 2007-08 tax year, Gibsons' council put the town's dozen tax-exempted properties on notice: By the 2009-10 tax year, they would have to justify the reasons why they received their exemption or risk losing it.
Eight of those properties were churches or had religious affiliations. Gibsons was challenging the automatic tax-exempted status that religious institutions have always enjoyed.
"The town of Gibsons is a progressive little place," Mayor Barry Janyk said, "and we just felt it was the appropriate thing to do if the taxpayers of the community -- the businesses and residential owners -- were being asked to contribute. And I don't see from the response that we got that any of the dozen potential listers were objecting to it."
To big city taxpayers, it is not a lot of tax dollars Janyk is talking about. The municipal portion of the permissive tax exemption Gibsons is allowed to forgive amounts to $60,000. But that is three per cent of Gibsons' total tax bill -- not insignificant when a town must struggle to pay for services.
"So," Janyk said, "do we want to give three per cent of our tax bill to the Legion and the Baptist church and the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, which is in there too? Don't forget we're a very small town, not only in terms of population, with about 4,300 people, but in terms of footprint as well, only about two square miles."
The justification process begins with the tax-exempted properties filling out a form that asks several questions, including: What services and programs do you provide? How do they benefit the general public?
The local United Church, for example, cited its thrift store that provides clothes to needy families at low or no cost, the rental of its hall to the public, the staging of local school plays and the counselling services of its minister. "A great organization," said Janyk.
The local Legion cited its offering of its hall space for public meetings, which, Janyk said, met the criteria, though any profit the Legion made from things such as liquor sales, he said, would continue to be taxed.
But one tax-exempt property that has given the town pause was the local Jehovah's Witness hall.
When asked what services and programs it provided, the Jehovah's Witness answer, Janyk said, was: "To assist the local unincorporated association of Jehovah's Witnesses in carrying out their religious objective of preaching the good news of God's Kingdom and promoting public religious worship."
In other words, providing a place of worship for local Jehovah's Witnesses, or those who wished to become Jehovah's Witness.
And how did that benefit the citizens of Gibsons at large?
"The response was:" said Janyk, " 'To assist any who attend these public meetings by means of moral and spiritual instruction based on God's word in the Bible.' "
But proselytizing, Janyk said, was not exactly what the town has in mind as a service to taxpayers.
"We're going to have to look at that, and ask if this meets the objectives of a tax exemption from council's perspective, or is there something more we could ask from the Jehovah's Witnesses.
"And my personal feeling is, I think we could ask them to open their hall for public purposes and not to just the members of their congregation."
And if the Jehovah's Witness do not comply, they could lose an exemption worth $1,400, Janyk said.
Is it worth going down this road for a $1,400 tax bill?
"I think (it is), because I think you have to justify what we do to the taxpayers. I think if you're going to create equality, it has to be good for all parties. And I'm trying to get these great organizations to recognize what they're getting in benefits from the community, and contribute accordingly.
"It shouldn't be that you just put in the application and you get the money. It shouldn't be like that. This is a contract between you and your community."
An organization with an even greater tax exemption is Christenson Village, a large assisted-living facility for seniors operated by the Good Samaritan Society, affiliated with the Lutheran Church. Open since 2006, it enjoys an exemption worth $22,000.
It does good work, Janyk said, but one aspect of its operation is problematic. Not all the residents in the facility are from Gibsons. Some are from the Lower Mainland, some from the regional district.
"And the town is looking at this, and going, 'Hang on a second: Why are we subsidizing the provincial government and the organization that's operating this facility on behalf of the provincial government?' Perhaps it's time to look into a phased approach of taxing them. Because, is it fair, is it right, for the local taxpayers to be subsidizing the provincial government?
"I can assure you that if it was the provincial government that was in the driver's seat, they certainly wouldn't give us the credit of a couple of years to implement tax policy."
Did he see this kind of tax scrutiny of religious and social organizations coming to larger communities?
"I would hope," Janyk said.
© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal