WINNIPEG, MB—A Winnipeg pastor hopes to challenge a city bylaw that requires his church to pay property taxes because it doesn’t own the building where the congregation meets.

New Beginnings Church rents space in a strip mall in south Winnipeg, and pastor Ivor Grant was shocked to find out this spring that the non-denominational church owed $23,000 in property taxes dating back to 2000, when the church opened.

He had no idea that in Winnipeg, if a church rents facilities, it is not exempt from property taxes as are most churches.

The error was discovered when a day care, also located in the strip mall, closed, and with it disappeared the property tax exemption the strip mall’s management company had attributed to the church. The management company pays the property tax outright, charging tenants based on their square footage, and had not charged the church for the tax until they discovered the error.

Church leadership sought legal advice and even invited a city tax assessor to visit the church to sort the problem out because they were convinced churches do not pay property tax. An e-mail from the City of Winnipeg confirmed they could not grant a property tax exemption, citing Section 22-1 of the Municipal Assessment Act.

“We’re doing the same thing as a church that owns its property. Why are we being treated differently?” Grant asks. “Simply because we have chosen or cannot afford to own the building, we have to pay.”

The former owners of the strip mall—which sold this summer—stepped up and forgave the church part of the sum, leaving Grant with $16,000 to pay off on the 2,250-square-foot space. Grant makes his final back payment in November, but is left with a monthly property tax bill that is stretching the small church.

“Our expenses have just ballooned by about $4,500 a year—plus this payment,” he says.

While Grant admits he could look at relocating and renting from another church to avoid paying property taxes, he says the current space fulfills their needs and mission.

“We’re actually a church for people who don’t like to go to church in a traditional setting. It’s set up like a coffee house,” he says. “To move out or rent from a church would hamper what we want to do.”

While the Canadian Council of Christian Charities (CCCC) deals mainly with federal level issues, John Pellowe, CCCC executive director, says property taxes are a growing concern in Canadian cities.

“We’ve been hearing from members there are more and more hoops they need to jump through,” he says, adding that multiple interpretations of the law complicate matters.

As for Grant, he is determined to fight to change the legislation. He plans to find out how many other churches are in the same predicament and then put together a petition.

This would not be the first legal battle between the City of Winnipeg and a church over property taxes. In January 2004, Winnipeg Centre Vineyard won a property tax dispute with the City of Winnipeg assessment department that would have seen them pay about $5,000 a year in property taxes for two unoccupied floors being used for storage in their large downtown building.