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A group has been pushing the City of Kelowna to question its policy on religious tax exemptions, and the city isn’t listening.

Kelowna Atheists, Skeptics, and Humanists Association, along with Advocacy Canada, started a petition, compiled research and sent letters to the city to ask council to hear their request to change religious property tax exemptions from five years to one year so the policy itself can be reexamined.

The association said that its request for a delegation was denied by the city. City clerk Laura Bentley said it's because of procedure.

“In accordance with the council Procedure Bylaw, delegation requests require a council resolution to be scheduled to a meeting. Correspondence is circulated to council and requestors are encouraged to reach out to individual council members to express their concerns directly,” Bentley said in an emailed statement to iNFOnews.ca.

iNFOnews.ca reached out to every member of Kelowna city council but didn't receive a reply from anyone.

George said the delegation was refused because council doesn't want to touch the topic. 

“This is just something they don't want to deal with,” the association’s spokesperson Nina George told iNFOnews.ca. “We are requesting to present the Fair Taxes – Fair Future delegation to council to initiate a long-overdue conversation on discrimination within the subsidized public worship category.”

When places of public worship get a property tax exemption in Kelowna they don’t have to pay taxes for five years. The association is pushing to get in front of council because the deadline to reapply is in July, and there won’t be an opportunity to reexamine the policy for another five years.

George said it isn’t about changing how people express their religion, it’s about how the government shouldn’t give financial breaks to groups who openly express homophobic views.

“These guys have religious freedom to discriminate, but we should have the freedom not to subsidize them, because we have a right, freedom from religion, and our money should not be going to these organizations,” she said. “Some of them do really good things, but they're still discriminating and marginalizing people. There's only four churches that don't discriminate in all of Kelowna.”

The association said that the city’s own policies say that it ought to make sure tax exemptions are for groups that are inclusive.

“Kelowna’s 2040 Official Community Plan (OCP) commits the city to equity, inclusion, and resilience. In particular, Policy 9.1.3 directs the City to apply an equity lens when allocating public resources. Permissive tax exemptions are public subsidies—and must reflect these principles,” the association said in an email.

There are 54 religious groups listed under the public worship tax exemption for 2024 for a total loss of roughly $350,000 in tax revenue, according to the city’s annual report.

The city hasn’t changed its public worship tax policy since 2005.

The association sent iNFOnews.ca applications for tax exemptions in 2020 from churches in Kelowna.

Grace Baptist Church declared that it had more than $1 million in cash, bank accounts and investments. Evangel Tabernacle of Kelowna declared more than $3.8 million in capital assets in Canada.

Grace Baptist Church was exempt from $10,970 in property taxes in 2024 and Evangel Tabernacle Church was exempt from $5,245.

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