OLDS — Council has voted to provide tax exemptions worth a total of about $7,102 to two local non-profit entities for the 2022 taxation year.
The two tax exemptions were requested by Padnoma Support Services for approximately $2,840 and the Central Alberta Pregnancy Care Centre (CAPCC) for a total of about $4,262.
Those exemptions were granted during town council’s Feb. 14 meeting.
Before doing so, several councillors grilled finance director Sheena Linderman about those two requests.
Councillors seemed surprised to hear that, off the top of her head, Linderman estimated that the Town of Olds normally grants tax exemptions to about 10 entities.
They asked administrative staff to find out how many tax exemptions have been given and called for that matter to come back for more discussion later when council weighs how much service to provide to residents.
Padnoma Support Services supports local residents with developmental disabilities in their daily lives and they in turn provide services like grocery delivery to clients.
The CAPCC provides support for everything from pregnancy and pregnancy loss to life skills and sexual health information for men and women.
The tax exemptions cover the municipal, education and seniors tax categories.
Some councillors wondered if council could exempt one or two, but not all those taxes.
Linderman said the Municipal Government Act is clear that if applicants meet all the criteria, council must grant the exemption, as long as it is satisfied that the property in question is being used for a ‘charitable and benevolent purpose’ for the benefit of the general public.
"I believe we all are looking forward to discussing this more in service level in the future, so thank you for that,” Town of Olds Mayor Judy Dahl said. “Good discussion.”
