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Kamloops  

City council votes to back chamber petition posing affordable housing solution

Endorsing land trust policy

Kamloops city council has backed a petition put forward to the federal government by the Kamloops and District Chamber of Commerce which presents a potential solution to the affordable housing crisis.

The chamber’s policy, endorsed by Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo MP Frank Caputo, suggests changes to federal tax law to incentivize donations of land to community land trusts — non-profits created to hold land in perpetuity for community benefit, thus removing the cost of land out of the overall cost to purchase or build a residence.

Coun. Katie Neustaeter put forward a motion suggesting city council endorse the chamber’s Community Land Trust Tax Policy by signing the official Parliament of Canada petition.

"Affordable housing is at the very top of our priority list right now, as we look at so many of the social challenges that we're experiencing and how people continue to become vulnerable. The answer to that, in many ways, is housing and affordable housing,” Neustaeter said in an earlier interview with Castanet Kamloops.

Mayor and council voted unanimously to support Neustaeter’s motion during a council meeting on Nov. 29.

The Kamloops and District Chamber of Commerce are still collecting signatures for the petition to help gain traction for the proposed policy.

The chamber’s policy suggests donations of land to a community land trust should be exempt from capital gains tax and eligible for a tax credit or offset.

Currently, those in Canada wishing to donate land to a land trust are deterred from doing so a they put give up the land and then pay tax on it.

In a mid-November interview with Castanet Kamloops, Colin O’Leary, who sits on the chamber’s board of directors, said the policy mirrors an existing program which provides tax credits to those who donate land for ecological preservation.

“Between 2006 and 2015, over a billion dollars worth of land was donated [for ecological preservation] using that mechanism," O'Leary said.

"Can you imagine a billion dollars worth of land being donated for affordable housing right now? And it’s not taxpayer dollars — this is private wealth getting mobilized for the public good.”

Anyone interested in learning more about land trusts and the chamber’s policy can visit the Kamloops and District Chamber of Commerce’s website.

The official petition can be viewed and signed here.



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