Kamloops council votes to adopt three tax exemption bylaws, one passed back to staff

A bylaw aimed at bolstering the development of city-wide commercial daycare facilities through tax exemptions was adopted by Kamloops city council on Tuesday.

According to the City of Kamloops, revitalization tax exemption (RTE) bylaws are used to meet a community need or revitalize an area using tax exemptions as an incentive.

On Tuesday, city council reviewed four such bylaw amendments, voting in favour of adopting three of them. A bylaw seeking to incentivize the redevelopment of older hotels and motels into multi-family residential buildings was passed back to staff for refinement.

Barbara Berger, the city’s recreation, social development and culture manager, told council a report brought forward to council in 2020 indicated the city was in serious need of more licensed daycare spaces.

“That report indicated that there was a deficit of over 8,000 licensed daycare spaces in this community,” Berger said, adding the opportunity to encourage the development of new spaces was welcomed by those participating in that study.

According to the city, the RTE bylaw will provide a 100 per cent tax exemption on increased assessed property value for a newly developed commercial daycare facility for a decade.

The facility must have a valid business license and remain operational as a commercial daycare in order to qualify for the tax exemptions.

Coun. Dale Bass said she wanted to thank staff for their work on the bylaw.

“This has been very important to me,” Bass said.

“Eight thousand kids without childcare isn't right. To the future, I don't know whether 8,000 will be the right number or the wrong number — the city is growing way faster than we thought it would — but I just hope this helps resolve the situation so more parents and more caregivers can actually get out of the house and go back into the economy and help build the city.”

Bass said she had been contacted by a former federal cabinet minister now involved in childcare who was “impressed” by the city’s movement on the matter.

“[He] was impressed with what we were doing and saw it as another way of improving the lack of childcare not only in B.C., not only in Kamloops, but in the country. So I have referred him to Manager Berger to talk to her more to get more information on it.”

Council voted unanimously to adopt the childcare RTE bylaw.

Council also voted to adopt city centre and North Shore RTE bylaw amendments.

The city centre RTE bylaw amendment sought to change the boundary to include properties designated as city centre in the downtown plan, as the city said it hopes to encourage new development or renovations to commercial buildings in those areas.

A council decision in late January saw staff narrow the boundaries to properties west of 10th Avenue and south of Lorne Street.

Coun. Denis Walsh said he wouldn’t support the city centre bylaw due to concerns over losing property tax revenue, and because he felt the bylaw still targeted too large an area.

Walsh and Mayor Ken Christian were opposed to the city centre RTE bylaw, but the motion carried 7-2.

The hotel and motel redevelopment RTE bylaw will go back to staff for further refinement after council voted to rescind the third bylaw reading.

The amendment sought to implement a 100 per cent tax exemption over 10 years on increased assessed value for properties where older hotels and motels are removed and replaced with multi-family residences.

The city said the purpose of the bylaw was to encourage the revitalization of older hotel and motel buildings throughout the city.

Both Walsh and Christian said they didn’t support the bylaw being applicable city-wide.

“There's areas that we desperately need redevelopment, particularly of some of the old motel stock,” Christian said, adding there’s also a recognition more housing is needed.

“I don't believe that it's city-wide, and I further believe that there is some chance that you could actually stifle growth in terms of the hotel industry while people wait for council to offer the 10 year tax exemption and thereby forego projects.”

Coun. Mike O’Reilly suggested that tax exemption could be applicable if an old hotel or motel structure was replaced with a newer hotel or motel.

Ultimately, council voted 5-4 to rescind the third reading of this bylaw. Councillors Bass, Sadie Hunter, Arjun Singh and Kathy Sinclair were opposed.

Staff said they would bring the bylaw back to their engagement groups for another session before returning to council with the amendment.