Town of Sundre council planned to discuss a tax break request during yesterday's council meeting for a resident whose house sustained damage in a fire.
Sundre resident Gabrielle Grainger was present at the governance meeting on Aug. 12 to make the request to council. Her house caught fire March 26 and she said she is unable to move back in until next month.
Council directed administration to look into what the town can do for Grainger, for yesterday's meeting.
During the Aug. 12 meeting, Coun. Tony Jordan asked administration if the town has granted tax breaks before in similar situations. Wanda Watson-Neufeld, the town's director of corporate services, discussed a couple of situations where residents had their homes damaged by fire and were not given a tax break. She said it's the same deal for people who have had their homes damaged by flooding.
Coun. Paul Isaac questioned Grainger's house insurance coverage and suggested that administration look into the tax break and see if the town can do anything to help.
Mayor Annette Clews asked administration to check with other communities and see what they do, but Watson-Neufeld said administration already did that and the general consensus was that other communities don't provide tax breaks in such a situation.
Isaac said he felt as though council wasn't ready to make a decision at that time and Doug Wright, the town's interim chief administrative officer, suggested to move the decision to yesterday's meeting.
All councillors were in favour. Councillors Chris Vardas and Myron Thompson were absent from the meeting.
