OLDS — Council has decided to waive development permit fees for the remainder of the year and to postpone the penalty for not paying residential and non-residential taxes that would normally take effect July 1.
Those are two of three moves approved May 25 in order to help local businesses and residents cope with hard times brought on by the COVID-19 virus.
The other move was to approve a program providing grants of up to $500 for eligible business located within Olds.
The town previously waived development fees for the first six months of this year. This new decision simply extends that waiver to Dec. 31.
In the case of the tax penalty, a bylaw to eliminate that deadline will have to be approved. An amending bylaw to make that happen is expected to come before council during its next meeting.
During a presentation to council, finance director Sheena Linderman noted that according to a survey, the best way to help local firms recover from the impact of COVID is to put money directly into their hands.
A memo from administrative staff indicated that waiving development permit fees for the remainder of the year will cost the town about $40,000.
The memo said while businesses and residents are still encouraged to pay their taxes by June 30, if they can’t, they will now have another couple of months to do so. The next date when penalties will begin to be applied for unpaid taxes will be Sept. 1.
The memo also said “the July 1 penalty typically generates between $30,000 and $35,000 in revenue. This of course is dependent on the amount of taxes outstanding at this date and can vary widely.”
Administrative staff said the business operating grant could cost the town $227,000, depending on the number of applications received.
“I’d just like to pass on some kudos to our administration and council for putting this together to start out with,” Coun. Mary Jane Harper said.
“I’ve been in conversation with a couple of developers. They said that they were very appreciative of that fact that the town of Olds did indeed waive these fees for the first six months.
"I think they’ll really enjoy the fact that they are seeing the support of the town of Olds by waiving them for the next six months.”
Councillors Mitch Thomson and Heather Ryan, along with mayor Mike Muzychka supported the moves as well.
“This puts money directly into the hands of business. It supported those restaurants that were needing to develop patios and things. And again, this goes right into their pockets and I support it,” Thomson said.
Ryan said she came up with the original idea for the development permit fee waiver.
“I fully back it for the rest of the year,” Ryan said.
Muzychka liked the plan because he said it will help residential and non-residential taxpayers who have had “employment interruptions or lost jobs or whatever it happens to be.”
“That will help them considerably,” he added.
Muzychka congratulated all administrative staff who were involved in coming up with the COVID impact relief plan.
Chief administrative officer Michael Merritt said lots of administrative staff were involved in crafting it and many came up with good ideas for it.
