Those willing to donate towards the improvement projects at Water Ridge and Bill Brecht Memorial parks will now be able to receive a charitable tax receipt from the city.
鈥淭his will enable the group to go out and seek more donations to put towards a city-owned structure and further reduce the amount of taxation dollars that would, down the road, go into replacing this playground,鈥� Michael Ulriksen, the city鈥檚 community services director told council.
鈥淭here's no direct cost to the city for doing this, other than probably a little bit of staffing time to issue the actual receipts come income tax time.鈥�
Michael Behiel, Humboldt鈥檚 mayor, said he was in favour of allowing donations to the two projects to receive charitable tax receipts
鈥淚 think this is actually an extremely good concept because we appreciate that it's not having to come out of the taxpayers鈥� pockets directly through taxation purposes, people are being able to donate as they see fit, and at the same time receiving the benefits of donating, which gives them an incentive to help assist with those causes when they can take some of that burden off by having a tax receipt.鈥�
At the April 26 council meeting, a new policy that allows the city to issue tax receipts was passed. The policy requires that council approve every capital project or activity to be eligible for a tax receipt. To approve it, council must determine that it provides a benefit for the community.
The first project to be approved was the Humboldt Broncos Tribute Centre.
