City of Powell River council will be undertaking a review of how it provides funding and tax exemptions for the city’s non-profit community groups.
Interim chief financial officer Corien Becker provided brief reports to the city’s finance committee on the city’s permissive tax exemption and grants-in-aid policies at its most recent meeting Thursday, February 25.
“I don’t have any recommendations at this point,” said Becker. “The conversation with council is to get a sense of how they feel about the process, the policy. This is the starting point to try to determine how council wanted to go about doing that.”
According to Becker, the finance committee has requested that a select committee, including at least one councillor and a number of community members, be formed to look at the overall view of how the city supports its non-profits.
Becker said the review will consider how other communities handle grant requests, look at the current system being used and “try to figure out what is best for Powell River,” but she added the process is still in its development and a terms of reference for the select committee is in the works.
The review will also look at how Powell River Council for Arts, Culture and Heritage (otherwise known as the arts council) and Powell River Community Forest handle grant requests. She added that public participation and engagement would be key in the committee’s work.
Nina Mussellam, arts council president, welcomes the city’s review, but said she has not spoken with anyone at the city about it.
“It’s a great thing to review it if they haven’t in the last few years,” said Mussellam.
Mussellam also noted the current potential for duplication of funding requests between Powell River Regional District (PRRD) and the city.
As the sole municipality inside PRRD, the city already contributes to the regional district’s general grants-in-aid fund, however it is common for non-profits to apply to both local governments for funding assistance.
The arts council is currently undergoing a review itself, including fine tuning of its criteria for grant applications. Mussellam said that she was unable to elaborate until the arts council meets again and approves the changes.
She expects that to be complete, as well as the group’s new website, in approximately two weeks and broader strategic goals for the organization done by mid-April.
Becker said that she expects the city to start work on its review “relatively quickly.”
Part of the review includes looking at permissive property tax exemptions for non-profits.
The city will need to amend that policy and bylaw by October 31 in order to have the changes apply to the 2017 tax roll.
