SUNDRE - Council has approved correspondence drafted by administration in response to a letter from Mountain View Seniors’ Housing (MVSH) seeking to appeal the Sundre Supportive Living Centre’s 18 life lease units' taxation notice.
“It is our request,” wrote Sam Smalldon, the organization’s chief administrative officer, in a letter dated Dec. 5, 2019, “for the town council in Sundre to reconsider this MVSH appeal on the basis that taxation of these 18 life lease suites will burden our senior residents.”
In a report to council, Chris Albert, Sundre’s director of corporate services, summarized during the Jan. 20 council meeting that MVSH requested tax relief on those units.
“What the life lease properties are, in case council is not aware, is there are 18 units that Mountain View Seniors’ Housing basically charges a lease fee for,” Albert said.
For about $200,000, a leasee receives an indefinite amount of time to occupy a suite, he said.
Upon receiving Smalldon’s letter, Albert said administration was prompted to conduct “a review of our procedures and our policies, and just make sure that our practices were consistent with where they should be.”
That process, he said, involved contacting Municipal Affairs, whose officials informed administration “that life lease properties are fully assessable and fully taxable. Their opinion is that they are similar to condo units, they don’t fall under the care categorization that a nursing home would.”
Smalldon’s letter also mentioned that other municipalities are not charging taxes on the units, something Albert said he was able to confirm by reaching out to the Town of Olds.
“They do not charge taxes on these particular types of units, but they did not know why that was put in place originally when the agreement was signed,” he said.
“They have no documentation as to why they came up with that particular policy.”
Administration, he said, was seeking council’s support in approving the letter written in response to Smalldon’s request.
“Town of Sundre Council does have the authority to waive the taxes levied on a property,” reads the correspondence’s conclusion, “however, that request cannot be submitted until the 2020 tax notices and assessments have been sent out. In addition, council may decide to provide an exemption under…the Municipal Government Act, which requires a formal request and would apply to the taxation process after the bylaw comes into force.”
Council was also presented with an alternate motion to direct administration to draft a bylaw pertaining to the exemption of the life lease units’ taxes and to send Smalldon a letter outlining that decision.
Initiating a discussion, Coun. Paul Isaac moved the recommended motion to approve the draft letter and direct administration to send the correspondence.
Coun. Cheri Funke said she did not disagree with the letter prepared by administration, but expressed the opinion that council “could very simply make a decision on their request already. They were given the information on the process back when they came in 2016, they understood that they were going to have to pay future property tax.”
Mayor Terry Leslie, who supported the motion, felt council was at a bit of a disadvantage in the absence of Coun. Richard Warnock, who as the municipality’s representative on the MVSH board could provide additional context, such as why Olds decided to waive taxes for life lease units.
“The only place that Mountain View Seniors’ Housing has life lease units is Olds and Sundre,” said Leslie, suggesting gleaning insight from Warnock.
“There may be in the future other life lease suites in Carstairs, that’s the next project, and as municipalities in the region as part of Mountain View Seniors’ Housing, we should be consistent,” he said.
Until there has been further discussion as to why it would be advantageous to not tax life lease units, and until all partner municipalities agree on a consistent approach, the mayor said he supported sending administration’s letter since it answers the questions raised by MVSH.
“I understand your point of view,” said Funke.
“But I don’t necessarily agree with all of us (member municipalities) doing the same thing, because it’s our residents and businesses that would have to pay the tax that we don’t get from the seniors who chose to live in a life lease,” she said.
Isaac’s motion was carried, with Funke opposed. Councillors Warnock, Rob Wolfe, Charlene Preston were absent from the meeting.
