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City considers tax receipts for farmers’ market building donations

City staff to find way to issue receipts for donations to build Island Roots Farmers’ Market building
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Island Roots Farmers’ Market Co-op and the city are working toward creating a permanent home for the markets at Beban Park. News Bulletin file photo

Tax receipts could soon be available for financial gifts to help construct a farmers’ market building.

At the City of Nanaimo’s finance and audit committee meeting May 10, city staff was asked to work out how individuals and companies might receive receipts for donations toward constructing a community farmers’ market building.

Island Roots Farmers’ Market Co-op, which runs winter and summer farmers’ markets in Nanaimo, plans to construct an 18,000-square-foot building at Beban Park near where the red barn is located.

Until now, Island Roots supporters could buy co-operative shares and make donations, but the organization does not have charitable status so donations couldn’t be deducted from income taxes. Tax receipts could boost fundraising efforts.

“The audit and finance committee … has approved that and asked staff to work out the details with us, actually, to work out the details with us and … Canada Revenue Agency,” said Larry Whaley, Island Roots Market Co-op president.

The building, which will cost about $2 million to construct, would be leased to the Island Roots co-operative.

The terms of the lease are being worked out, but once the lease ends, the building would remain city property, said Mary Smith, Nanaimo parks and rec manager of recreational services.

The market building is part of a complex of structures planned for the park, which include a First Nation cultural centre and new equestrian facilities.

“It’s not a simple thing to work with a group to operate a commercial venture in a city park,” Smith said. “We’re having to get legal opinions and, of course, looking at the community charter as to what we can and cannot do. It’s part of the process we’re going through right now.”

For-profit vendors operating on publicly funded property isn’t new. Privately owned cafés and swimwear retailers, for instance, operate in Nanaimo’s aquatic centres in retail space built for those purposes. Smith said a farmers’ market, such as the Bowen Road Farmers’ Market that has operated at Beban Park for several years, is in keeping with appropriate use of the park.

Smith also pointed out there are numerous examples of specific-use facilities, including baseball and soccer complexes, built under similar funding arrangements.

“We have community participation in all kinds of development,” Smith said. “Look at the Stevie Smith [Community Bike Park] for example, right now.”

Whaley cites the Gibsons Public Market, in Gibsons, B.C., as an example of a community market.

“Council has approved the project in principle and has instructed staff to work on the lease and the regional district is doing a $25,000 grant to do the preliminary drawings and quantity survey and engineering work to make sure we can do this,” Whaley said.

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Chris Bush

About the Author: Chris Bush

As a photographer/reporter with the Nanaimo News Bulletin since 1998.
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