VICTORIA -- Royal Canadian Legion branches in B.C. are struggling, and many may not survive, so legion brass has renewed its call for a provincial exemption from paying property taxes.
“We have been advocating previous governments in the past and it’s fallen on deaf ears,” said Valerie MacGregor, president of the legion’s BC/Yukon Command.
“There are provinces in Canada (where) no legion branches pay property taxes,” said Angus Stanfield, vice president of Dominion Command.
The Victoria branch got its tax bill yesterday.
“That bill was $92,656.30,” said Patti Stockton, president of the Trafalgar/Pro Patria Legion Branch 292.
That was after a break from the City of Victoria, which only taxed the legion’s building and excluded the parking lot.
“A municipality makes us pay property tax,” said Stockton. “It’s municipal taxes, not provincial taxes, but the province could exempt us.”
Many municipalities in BC already offer tax breaks to their local legions, but the organization wants to see the policy implemented at a province-wide level, similar to how churches are exempt.
“The province can exempt legions from the property tax and it doesn’t cost the province anything,” said Stockton. “It’s the municipalities (that would see costs).”
While many legions are facing big property tax bills, they don’t qualify for the new provincial circuit-breaker grants.
“The circuit breaker was designed for for-profit businesses and we’re going to continue to look at ways to help the legion,” said Premier John Horgan on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs passed the issue to municipalities, saying in a statement: “Legion branches that have questions should approach their local municipal council about their permissive exemption policy.”
New Brunswick and Ontario have exempted legions from paying property taxes. Saskatchewan has never charged legions property tax since the province’s formation in 1925.
“We’re covered under the ‘Cities Act,’ which is under legislation through our provincial government that any legion-owned building is not subjected to any local property taxes,” said Chad Wagner, provincial executive director for Saskatchewan Command.
Wagner says if legions in his province had to pay those types of taxes, it would be devastating to the whole organization.
“I don’t see very many of our branches being able to sustain that,” said Wagner. “We wouldn’t be able to have too many branches with buildings … We would be operating out of town halls or churches or doing something without the bricks and mortar.”
Correction:
A previous version of this article stated that Alberta had property tax exemptions for Legion branches. In fact, a proposal was brought forward in the province in 2019 but was not approved by the Alberta government.
