The new Peavey Mart development on 15 Street E. received a five year partial tax exemption under the previous incentive program.

By Alison Sandstrom

Incentive programs

P.A. opts for more flexible approach to tax breaks for businesses

Mar 1, 2021 | 8:00 AM

The City of Prince Albert hopes loosening the criteria for new businesses to receive tax breaks will spur growth.

At the suggestion of city administration, council decided not to renew a suite of tax incentive programs implemented in 2018 to encourage new business and home builds, although revised programs could be brought forward at a later date.

Director of Planning and Development Craig Guidinger told paNOW while the Building Our Tax Bases programs were generally successful, their “one-size-fits-all” approach was limiting. Tailoring tax exemptions on a case-by-case basis will allow for more flexibility.

“We want to attract new business, specifically new industry,” he said. “So if you’re a business creating 20, 30 plus new jobs in Prince Albert we’d be happy to sit down with [you] and talk about as a city how we can make that happen.”

At a Feb. 22 meeting, councillors were generally supportive of the new approach, but some had concerns about the lack of consistent rules, and several wanted to see new revised incentive programs brought forward in the future.

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“There’s more consistency for the public [and] for people applying if you have reasonable and fair criteria, and then it can be consistent for all applications that get made,” Coun. Terra Lennox-Zepp said.

Ensuring tax breaks go to beneficiaries who truly need them was another focus of council discussion.

“In my view, incentives are for people, for businesses that are looking to build and they otherwise wouldn’t,” said Coun. Ted Zurakowski. “It’s not a freebie for everybody.”

He also voiced his support for the move to a more flexible, less prescriptive model.

“When you talk to those developers and businesses they all want something different…let’s find a way not to say no,” Zurakowski said.

At the same meeting, council approved a partial tax exemption for a new SGEU office building being constructed in the south of the city. That agreement will see the property fully exempt from municipal property taxes for three years between 2023 and 2025.

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom