City Hall sent out a press release last week that sounded like it might be big news. If you’re renovating your home, and can’t reasonably use it for at least three months, you don’t have to pay property tax on it.
Sounds like a good deal.
But it's also an old deal.
"This provision has always been there," says Casey Brendon, the city's director of revenue services. And by always, he means since way back before amalgamation.
So why the press release?
"It's partially related to the fact that these applications are heard routinely by the government management committee, which has had at least two changes in chairs," he says, "and we had these new councillors coming in, saying 'I didn’t realize there was a process where we did this. Is the public appropriately aware of this program?'"
So working on the assumption that if the councillors didn't know about it, there's a good chance the public didn't either, they decided to make some noise about it.
So, if this is news to you, and you have a property, residential or otherwise, that you're not going to be able to use for the purpose for which it is intended for at least three months, you may want to
look into it.
And if you knew all about this already, well, you may want to have a word with your councillor about keeping up on the news.
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Casey Brendon
Photo: B. Sutherland