Salt Spring Island daycare retains property tax exemption in assessment appeal

Salt Spring Early Learning Centre is seen in this photo from its website. (saltspringearlylearning.ca)

A daycare on Salt Spring Island has won the right to keep its property tax exemption in a recent decision by B.C.'s Property Assessment Appeal Board.

The Gulf Islands Early Learning Society, which operates Salt Spring Early Learning Centre on Drake Road, challenged its 2022 property assessment, arguing that the two lots that make up the centre had been incorrectly classified.

The non-profit society told the board its properties should have been exempt from taxation under the provincial Taxation (Rural Area) Act, while the assessor argued that neither lot met the act's criteria for an exemption.

In his Oct. 24 decision on the matter, PAAB panel chair Howard Kushner concluded that the assessor was wrong about the lot on which the daycare's heritage building stands, though he declined to extend the exemption to the adjacent, vacant lot used as a play yard by the daycare. 

The crux of the issue was the act's requirement properties owned, occupied and exclusively used by non-profit societies be used for "activities that are of a demonstrable benefit to all members of the community where the land is located."

The assessor argued that the property's use as a daycare did not provide a benefit to every member of the Salt Spring community.

"But that is not the test," Kushner's decision reads.

"Rather, the question to be asked in this case is whether there is a general public good that is being met by filling a need in the community. It is not necessary that every member of the community directly benefit by the use of the facility."

The panel chair cited the many letters of support for the daycare – including those from Adam Olson, the MLA for Saanich North and the Islands; Gary Holman, a Capital Regional District director for Salt Spring Island; and Timothy Peterson, the chair of the Salt Spring Island Local Trust Committee – as evidence of this broader community benefit.

"Even if the operations of the daycare may directly benefit the children in attendance and their parent(s) or guardian(s), it also provides both an economic and social benefit to the larger community," Kushner's decision reads, noting that the facility is the only one on Salt Spring Island that is open until 5 p.m. five days a week.

"The value of having a child learning centre on the island, open until 5 p.m. five days a week, is not limited to the children attending the centre or their parents or guardians," the decision reads.

"The larger community indirectly benefits by having those parents and guardians able to work, especially those individuals who provide essential services (such as teachers, nurses, doctors, hydro and ferry workers) or those individuals whose occupation requires them to be present at work (such as grocery store workers). Further, child care centres provide a benefit to society generally similar to that of educational institutions, in particular educational institutions for younger elementary aged children."

Kushner also reduced the assessed value of the daycare lot from $1.4 million to $924,000, based on submissions from the parties about comparable sales in the area in 2022.

The vacant lot remains taxable, with an assessed value of $243,000.