Image Credit: ADOBE STOCK

A Kelowna association is challenging why the city allows $272 million in local property tax exemptions for religious groups.

The Kelowna Atheists, Skeptics and Humanists Association alongside Advocacy Canada has have started a petition to get the city to reevaluate how it decides to give religious groups property tax exemptions.

“This is not an attack on spirituality, but an invitation for the religious doctrine based organizations to align with our shared societal values and contribute more equitably to the community,” the association’s lead researcher and spokesperson Nina George said in a press release.

Kelowna’s current system allows for religious organizations to apply for a five-year tax exemption for their properties, and the time to reapply is coming up this July and would grant exemptions for the next five years. The association estimates that the city loses out on a million dollars a year in taxes due to the places of worship exemption.

The association and Advocacy Canada want a new process for choosing which groups get a tax exemption, according to the petition.

George said discrimination against the LGBTQ community by some churches, sending donations outside of the community to larger religious organizations and freedom from religion are some of the main reasons why religious groups should pay property tax.

“As Kelowna taxpayers grapple with rising costs and increasing user fees, we must ask: should public funds continue to fully subsidize organizations that provide overlapping services? The vast majority of Kelowna’s religious organizations are Christian. Why are taxpayers funding duplicate, multi-million-dollar properties that are often under-utilized and inaccessible to secular individuals — while some direct their savings toward political causes outside of Kelowna,” she said in the release.

READ MORE: 'UNDER ATTACK': MLAs 'defend' Kelowna's 'Keep Christ in Christmas' sign

The president of Advocacy Canada, Wilbur Turner, said the petition released over the weekend isn’t about making places of worship pay property taxes this year, he said it’s about getting the city to issue one-year exemptions in July to give it time to create a new system.

“The policy hasn't been reviewed since about 2006... We got a copy of all the applications from the last approval timeline. We took that information and analyzed the data from it and had some concerns around the broadness of the exemptions, and we're looking at the city to just have another look and review the policy around it,” he said.

The petition cites the fact that, according to Statistics Canada, 54 per cent of Kelowna’s residents are non-religious, and the city is missing out on a significant amount of tax revenue by having a broad exemption for religious properties.

"The Trinity Baptist Church is statutorily exempt for the place of public worship and the land under the building. It is also receiving a full permissive exemption for the remainder of the land under the City of Kelowna’s Permissive Exemption Bylaw. Therefore, the Trinity Baptist Church is receiving the full statutory tax exemption and City of Kelowna full permissive tax exemption for land and buildings. They get a property tax holiday of $140,415 every year," the petition says. 

Advocacy Canada looked at 37 faith-based organizations in the Okanagan and said that only four were “identified as safe and affirming for the queer community.”

Turner said people preaching discrimination shouldn’t be supported by tax breaks.

“Some of them are quite problematic in terms of their doctrine,” he said. “Religious folks can have their values and their doctrine. But the general public doesn't need to support it through tax dollars.”

George said the way the tax exemption works is that the building that’s used as a place of worship is exempt by provincial law while the city controls whether or not the religious group pays tax on the rest of the property like parking lots and event spaces.

George said the $272 million figure is the property value that could be taxed by the city.

READ MORE: Undercover liquor inspectors bust BC bar for letting patrons sing karaoke

“We've done all the research. Some places hardly have any people going to them. Housing is unaffordable, there's limited space in Kelowna, and yet we have these empty parking lots that are only used maybe two or three times a week,” George told iNFOnews.ca. “This is an opportunity for them. They need to look at themselves and say, well, you know, maybe we should change. Maybe we can be more open to other people and let people use our facilities.”

The association and Advocacy Canada gathered information, largely through Freedom of Information Act requests, on 57 religious groups in Kelowna and found that a lot of them donate to causes outside of Kelowna.

“The purpose of the permissive tax exemptions is that these organizations are supposed to provide a public benefit to Kelowna residents,” George said. “The donations are kind of appalling. Like thousands and thousands of dollars are being sent out of Kelowna. And we're all subsidizing them.”

George said the petition isn’t meant to challenge freedom of religion, but rather support freedom from religion.

“We have the right to be free from religion. But we're not free from religion when we're subsidizing them. Especially through our property taxes,” she said.

She said the city’s 2040 Official Community Plan emphasizes how the city will “help deliver on our goals of a more sustainable, equitable future.”

“How are they doing this if we're continuing subsidizing these organizations?” George said.

Turner said he is ready for the likely criticism and blowback from the petition.

“We're kind of used to it,” he said.

The association is having an event to discuss the religious property tax exemption at the downtown branch of the Okanagan Regional Library from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on March 9. There is also an online presentation from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. on March 12.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Jesse Tomas or call 250-488-3065 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw. Find our Journalism Ethics policy here.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. SUBSCRIBE to our awesome newsletter here.

News from © iNFOnews, 2025