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Here’ how council members cast Here’s their ballots on some of 2015’s major decisions / Page 3
Merritt’s Brian Barrett has been deeply involved in Merritt’s hockey scene for years / Page 9
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MERRITT HERALD FREE
TUESDAY, JANUARY 12, 2016 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
COMMUNITY NEWS
PROVINCIAL NEWS
Movie theatre middle man
Province opposes pipeline
City looking at option to filter donations to community theatre society Michael Potestio THE MERRITT HERALD
In the ongoing saga to bring a theatre to Merritt without using city money and raising taxes, the Nicola Valley Community Theatre Society and City of Merritt may team up to facilitate donor money. The non-profit society wants to build a theatre and performing arts centre downtown, and submitted an application about four months ago to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) for charitable status. However, to date the CRA hasn't responded to the society. Nicola Valley Theatre Society director Rich Hodson said he expects to receive an answer from the agency next month. If unsuccessful in obtaining this status, the society is asking the city to collect donations on its behalf so that those who want a tax receipt when donating to the theatre project can receive one. "We have several large donors that would like to give us money, but they need a tax receipt before they'll do that," Hodson said. Without charitable status, the theatre society cannot issue tax receipts itself. A council report on the matter submitted as information for the Jan. 12 council meeting states that municipalities are considered qualified donees by the CRA, giving it the ability to issue tax receipts for donations that meet the CRA's charitable donation criteria for charities. The city can act as a charity and
The Nicola Valley Theatre Society wants to build a theatre on a lot at the corner of Coutlee Avenue and Garcia Street. David Dyck/Herald
collect the donations, issue receipts and give the funds to the society — even though the society isn’t a charity — as long as it maintains control and direction over how the money is spent. City of Merritt financial director Sheila Thiessen said the money can’t be handed over unconditionally. If council approved this course of action, an agreement would need to be established between the society and the city outlining criteria to be met before the collected funds could be transferred from the city. City staff would also need to determine
a portion of the project to fund that aligns with the municipalities mandate and draft an agreement as to how and when the funds would be disbursed for council approval. “Lots of municipalities do fund theatre spaces,” Thiessen said, noting the city doesn’t want to commit public money to the project, so this option is one way to help in lieu of that. Essentially, those who make a donation under this potential arrangement would be donating money directly to the city, Thiessen said. In the event the theatre proj-
ect didn’t go through, the City of Merritt would have a windfall of donation money to spend on a similar cultural initiative. The proposed four-bay theatre would be a hybrid model with three movie theatres with paid staff combined with a community performing arts theatre. "If you were strictly a business, you probably wouldn't qualify for CRA's [charitable] status, but if you have the community theatre, which is for the good of everybody in the community, then you may qualify, but we don't know yet and we have to wait and see," Hodson said.
The B.C. government is close to releasing its plan to provide “world-leading” prevention and response to land-based oil spills, but that progress isn’t enough to change its opposition to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. Environment Minister Mary Polak announced Monday the province’s final submission to the federal review of the project confirms it still has not met B.C.’s five conditions for approval of heavy oil pipelines. Polak said she is preparing to present legislation this spring to establish new standards for land protection, after discussions with Trans Mountain operator Kinder Morgan Canada and other companies. B.C.s final submission to the National Energy Board continues to recommend the pipeline twinning not be approved, but Polak said that is not the final word. “We have been encouraged by the number of government and industry leaders who have also taken up the challenge and accepted the need to proceed along our five conditions, but we have not at this time seen evidence in the NEB hearing process that those conditions can yet be met,” Polak said.
See ‘Pipeline’ Page 8
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