After being denied last year, the Kamloops Film Society has been granted a tax break from council for the upcoming year.

City staff recommended the request be denied, but council felt that the non-profit is not “competition” to other movie theatres in town. Council’s finance committee based that on a “grey area” in the city’s permissive tax exemption bylaw.

“Frankly if it’s something that council wants to change and wants to get rid of that grey area, then maybe that’s something we need to change in the future. But as it’s written right now, we believe that it fell in line and we believe that it was the right application for a permissive tax exemption,” councillor Mike O’Reilly says.

The tax break for the film society will be worth close to $4,000, which is one-third of its property taxes of $11,800.

O’Reilly says the city had plenty of room financially to approve this with its permissive tax exemption budget for 2021.

“We’re sitting at approximately $528,000 dollars, and we have set aside a budget for $722,000. So we’re well below the threshold of where we should be.”

Today, council has also granted a one-year tax break for five other non-profits, including the SPCA, the Kamloops Food Bank,the  Kamloops Society for Alcohol and Drug Services, the Canadian Mental Health Association and St. Paul’s Cathedral. All of those groups will be relieved of paying one-third of their property taxes.

All non-profits currently receiving the tax break from the city will be up for renewal next year.

Editor Note: This story initially stated that the Kamloops Film Society would get a tax break of $11,800, however, the permissive tax exemption will cover one-third of that amount. The story has been corrected to reflect that.