Tax Exemption for Lands Leased for Park Purposes

Ministry of Community Services The Community Charter provisions provide two categories of property tax exemptions; statutory exemptions which are mandatory and permissive exemptions which only apply at the discretion of a municipality. Statutory exemptions are principally intended to exempt from taxation those interests in property that are held by local authorities, the Province of British Columbia Province, and other specified persons, through fee simple ownership. It is not intended to exempt land and improvements where the fee simple interest is held by a private person i.e., a taxable owner and the property is leased to another person. Extending statutory or mandatory exemptions to taxable owners if they lease property to exempt occupiers persons who would be exempt if they held the fee simple interest could potentially result in a significant loss of tax base for local governments and for the Province. Such an expansion of mandatory taxation exemptions would remove significant autonomy from local governments, who currently have some discretion to determine such exemptions. Additionally, any such mandatory contraction of the tax base could see tax shifts within communities resulting in other taxpayers having to shoulder the forgone tax revenue from those properties. Municipalities currently have the ability to exempt permissively land owned by a taxable owner which is leased by a municipality or other local government and which is used for a park or other use council considers a purpose of the local government. This provides local governments with the flexibility to determine the appropriateness of the expansion of taxation exemptions and the concomitant contraction of the tax base and potential tax shifts based on their own local circumstances and the desires of their community.