Regina’s executive committee tables COVID tax relief decision

Hotels and businesses seeking some financial relief from the City of Regina will need to wait a bit longer.

On Wednesday, the city’s executive committee voted to table its decision when it comes to responding to requests for property tax relief.

The Regina Hotel Association, Regina Downtown Business Improvement District, and Regina Warehouse Business Improvement District all asked for some form of relief due to COVID-19 affecting their business.

The hotels association asked for a 25 per cent exemption on 2021 municipal property taxes for hotels and motels. The RDBI and RWBID were both looking for a property tax credit equal to the properties’ 2021 Business Improvement District taxes.

The recommendation from the city administration to the executive committee was to deny the requests and for city council to direct the administration to implement an arrears payment plan with a reduced penalty rate of 0.75 per cent.

Mayor Sandra Masters said executive committee has asked the administration for a supplemental report about where the city’s interest rate ranks among other municipalities.

Masters also said council wants to see discussions happen with the hotels association about how its recovery will look over the next few years.

That decision has been tabled to the March 9 executive committee meeting.

Executive committee did approve funding of $2.7 million from the asset revitalization reserve to fund the one-time accelerated implementation of a modern Customer Relationship Management solution in 2022.

The decision still needs to be approved by council. If it is, the money would go towards purchasing the software which is expected to automate processes, resulting in reduced wait and call times and improve service levels.

An additional $320,000 is also being requested to help fund the creation of the transformation office, which was one of the recommendations to come from the city’s efficiency review last year.