BC Housing rejects tax exemption for Ki-Low-Na Friendship Society

Taxpayers should pay the property taxes for a new low-income housing project, city staff say.

A glitch has arisen in an otherwise routine tax exemption for an 86-unit rental development, constructed by the Ki-Low-Na Friendship Society in partnership with BC Housing.

As per city policies intended to spur construction of new rental projects, council has already granted a property tax exemption of $17,000 for this year for the development at 1745 Chapman Place on the Central Green site.

But the BC Assessment Authority has applied the tax anyway.

The authority says BC Housing’s involvement through a stratification process, a relatively new approach for the Crown corporation to support affordable rental projects, conflicts with the city’s policy that grants the tax break in the first place.

Municipal staff’s response to the dilemma is to use funds collected from other city taxpayers to pay the Ki-Low-Na Friendship Society’s tax bill this year, then rewrite the tax exemption policy bylaw to ensure the same problem doesn’t occur in 2018.

“For all intents and purposes, all 86 units of the Ki-Low-Na Friendship Society housing project are being operated as affordable rental units in the spirit of the bylaw; however, the financing approach used by BC Housing has created this temporary issue for 2017,” reads part of a staff report going to city council today.