Mayor's task force recommends tax rebates for Exchange arts organizations
Report also suggests city redirect derelict-building fees to support heritage structures
A mayor-appointed task force wants Winnipeg to offer property-tax rebates to arts organizations in the Exchange District and funnel the fees from vacant and derelict buildings into support for heritage structures.
In a report published Thursday, Mayor Brian Bowman's task force on the arts recommends the city aid the arts and culture sector in a variety of ways, including a dedicated maintenance fund for city-owned arts and culture facilities, money set aside to build arts-related capital projects and a new form of tax incentives or rebates for arts, culture and heritage organizations.
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The report recommends the city offer these rebates or tax incentives to organizations located in the Exchange District in 2018.
"The task force noted that while there is an interest within the arts and cultural community to continue using the Exchange District for studio and gallery space, there is more than anecdotal evidence to suggest that artists are now leaving the neighbourhood in order to find more affordable spaces. This has been exacerbated by the increasing cost of rent in the District, which is an unintended outcome of the neighbourhood's popularity," according to the report.
The report also recommends Winnipeg use the fees it charges for vacant and derelict buildings and redirect the funds from general revenues to programs that support built heritage.
There is a need for continued support to arts and cultural organizations along with individual artists to continue to use the Exchange District as a cultural hub.- City task force
"The Task Force felt that for heritage spaces, more consistent application of vacant and derelict building fees could be charged, with the potential to increase the current rates charged as disincentive to having heritage spaces sit vacant," the report states.
"The Task Force also felt these specific fees should be redirected from the city's general revenues and go to support heritage conservation initiatives, representing an innovative way to increase the funding available to support built heritage, while reducing the overall effort required to address derelict and vacant buildings."
Arts and Cultural Industries executive director Thom Sparling, who helped write the report, said tax incentives or subsidies could help bridge the gap between the market rents in the Exchange and what owners of heritage properties would need to charge if they renovated more of the aging structures.
While arts organizations have long noted Winnipeg spends less per capita on the arts than most Canadian cities, it's unclear whether the political will exists to consider the recommendations.
Council finance chair Scott Gillingham (St. James-Brooklands-Weston) said while the city is starting to plan the 2018 budget, he has not been made aware of the recommendations from the task force.
Bowman himself said he is not ready to endorse the idea of subsidies for the arts.
North Kildonan Coun. Jeff Browaty, meanwhile, said he opposes the idea.
"Arts communities tend to go where the rents are cheaper. They become the next new, up-and-coming places," he said. "If they're leaving the Exchange, that's not necessarily a bad thing. They're going to go to the next cool place, [like] maybe Point Douglas."
Fashion designer Lennard Taylor, who moved into a larger space in the Exchange earlier this month, suggested that's short-sighted, given the neighbourhood's rising profile as a cultural destination.
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