Campbell River moves to remove tax exemptions from the Art Gallery and Mental Health.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - At their September 28 Council meeting, the city of Campbell River took the first steps towards removing the tax exemptions from the Campbell River Art Gallery (CRAG) and Vancouver Island Mental Health. Councillor Ron Kerr made the motions, which were approved, with only Councillor Tanille Johnston voting in opposition. City staff informed council this was a change of direction which affected the budget and there would need to be a second meeting before the exemptions can be removed. This has been scheduled for October 12. 

“It looked like it was going to be a pretty standard third reading on September 28th. Maybe an hour and a half into the meeting, my phone exploded with messages from folks that were watching the meeting saying, 'Sara, you need to watch this. They're coming after the CRAG,’”
Sara Lopez Assu, Executive Director of the CRAG, subsequently informed Cortes Currents.

“It completely surprised us. It felt a bit like an ambush because at this point we have no recourse. We submitted a request to present to the City Council at the October 12th meeting, where the final vote will occur. That request has been denied. So there seems to be no interest in engaging in any kind of dialogue with us.”

It was already after 4 PM and there was no one available to comment, when Cortes Currents phoned Vancouver Island Mental Health.

Kerr explained the rationale for his actions against the Art Gallery and Mental Health at the September 28 council meeting:

“Their behaviour has been very poor neighbourly to the surrounding businesses and is having an extreme detrimental effect to our downtown businesses and visitations in our downtown area.”   

“We've got limited ways of letting these organizations know and changing their behaviour, but we certainly don't need to give them tax deferrals if they're not working with us.”

Assu claims, “Council is obviously misguided in both their perceptions of us and of whether or not this is a solution to anything other than punish an organization which they may not align with in terms of personal values.” 

 She has received hundreds of supportive letters and emails since the meeting, “We’ve received them from private businesses down Shoppers Row, the Library, the Tidemark, museums and art galleries across the country and professional artists that we've worked with from across the country. They see the work that we do and see value in the contributions that we bring to this community.”

At the council meeting, Councillor Tanille Johnston said she had not been privy to the city’s ‘in camera’ (i.e. - private) meetings on this issue, but, “There are roles and responsibilities for our bylaw officers and it's not necessarily the role and responsibility of a business owner or a not-for-profit society owner to be doing bylaw role and responsibilities.  I would love to understand better where you're coming from Councillor Kerr, in regards to some of the comments you made.”

“Our gallery has been getting some pretty awesome recognition in some pretty big spaces for the work that they're doing. I think their engagement with certain populations is actually keeping people off of the street and putting them into spaces and places where they can and do meaningful work that is helping them with their journey and trying to get to a better place.”

Councillor Ben Lanyon supported Kerr’s motion, “I'm aware of some bylaw enforcement and correspondence that pertains to this issue.  There was a lot of pushback against our own city staff, after they requested the Art Gallery Executive Director take certain actions on the property downtown next to Spirit Square. I'm aware of a general attitude in favour of allowing camping in the awnings on city owned property, that is provided at zero cost to the art gallery, despite the city's requests to the contrary.”