(File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

Fixer-upper

Should landlords get incentives to renovate?

Sep 27, 2020 | 10:00 AM

Prince Albert city council is exploring an incentive program encouraging landlords to make renovations to multi-unit buildings.

At Monday night’s meeting, Coun. Blake Edwards said he’d heard from several landlords who want to make improvements at their properties but haven’t because it would increase their property taxes.

“It’s important to get some of these older buildings fixed up,” he said, moving a motion that administration prepare a report on the potential program.

His colleagues were generally supportive of investigating the idea further, but several had concerns about any program, which would likely take the form of a tax break, would need to be carefully crafted.

“You’d have to put in some kind of an indicator that the person could not up the rents,” Coun. Don Cody said during an Aug. 24 discussion on the topic.

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He added there should also be assurances that beneficiaries of the program could not then turn around and sell their properties at a profit.

“After all, if we were to take taxpayer money and go in and beautify a place, within months the person could make great profits and I don’t think that’s what the taxpayers want,” Cody said.

Mayor Greg Dionne said he would only support incentives for new owners who wanted to make renovations to a building they’d recently purchased.

“In some cases, the landlords have owned the building for ten years and allowed it to get into this state,” he said.

Prince Albert has various programs that offer whole or partial tax breaks aimed at encouraging development in the city. Newly constructed homes are eligible for a 100 per cent tax abatement for a period of three years. Projects valued at over $1 million that meet an identified need or market niche can apply for a five-year declining scale tax abatement.

City administration will prepare a report on a potential incentive program for renovations to multi-unit buildings for discussion at a council meeting in January of 2021.

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom