Churches and nonprofits are being squeezed

I appreciate people who run for public office, like the councillors and mayor of Victoria. I don’t run. Therefore for the most part I don’t feel that I have a right to complain. However, in order to fund this pay increase the money has to come from somewhere.

The nonprofits and churches are now being taxed for their parking lots. For many nonprofits and small churches this will spell the end of their ability to provide services and spiritual advice. This is wrong. How can you provide services if you don’t have a place for people to park?

With congregations getting smaller it is already a burden to contribute to the community when parishioners are older, and being able to drive and park is the way they get to churches.

Nonprofits already run on a razor’s edge when trying to stay open. This is a tax grab for the poorest, and the neediest in our society.

Will we tell women who need support, sorry we can’t stay open because we have to pay tax to the City of Victoria? Will we tell churches that support the homeless and lonely, sorry we can’t continue to provide services because the city is taxing us and the money we would use has now gone to the city to pay the tax?

Over the next five years, churches will pay more than $100,000 in taxes when it could go to provide services for single parents, people who need a meal or to provide a place for folks who are lonely or for churches that provide a haven for Ukrainian refugees. This tax grab must be reversed if small nonprofits and churches are to continue to provide the services that are vital in this community.

Sue Goldsack Esquimalt