Prince George BC – There may be tax relief next year for some  thrift stores in Prince George.At a special meeting of Prince George City Council this afternoon,  Council  approved a revision to the Permissive Tax Exemption Policy.

The approval was not unanimous, as Councillor Merrick wanted one line removed,  saying she was “uncomfortable”   with the  line that reads “any commercial activity undertaken on the exempt property is not in competition with for-profit businesses”.  “I think this definition is going to cause us problems because the reality is any commercial enterprise is in competition”.  She said this line would allow “Any social enterprise to be challenged under this  line  and I don’t think it’s going to help us in any way at this  point.”

She  tried to amend the policy  to  have the line removed,  but the  motion was defeated.

The intent of the line is to  provide more flexibility when  looking at  applications for permissive tax exemptions.  It would mean,  for instance, that the Salvation Army Thrift Store  and St. Vincent DePaul Thrift Store  would be able to apply for a  tax exemption, something  they  can’t do now.  But would  Value Village  believe  it would also qualify?  “For me,  I see an absolute distinction between the two ( Value Village and the Salvation Army)” said Mayor Lyn Hall ” but I don’t want to lose  ground  on the ability to have some flexibility  to  take applications from the Salvation Army, St. Vincent De Paul and  others.”

Staff say that while they  did  examine  similar  policies from  Kelowna and Kamloops,   neither of those two cities  indicated the  language had  caused any concerns.

The change in policy won’t help those not for profit organizations which  have  a commercial component  this year.   Those applications were already received and approved last October,  but it may help  those  submitting applications for the October 2016 deadline for  consideration for the 2017 tax year.

The new policy  may still be altered at some point down the road,  but  not before  applications  would be  accepted for  the 2017 tax year.