COPTER Changes and Potential Impacts
Written by Michael Arnold, AMAA | Legislative Policy Committee Chair
Changes to COPTER (Community Organization Property Tax Exemption Regulation) were announced a few days ago. I was partially involved with the stakeholder consultations last year along with Angel Svennes and Gillian Greene (Gillian did most of the hard lifting, attending the majority of the stakeholder meetings and summarizing the discussions). This was the fourth round of stakeholder consultations regarding COPTER that I’ve been a part of in my career.
One of the most impactful changes COPTER is the addition of “disadvantaged persons” to the definitions, and “…the amelioration of the conditions of disadvantaged persons” to the definition of “charitable or benevolent purpose”. Adding/amending these clauses aligns COPTER with the policies in the Human Rights Act. The interpretation of who qualifies as a disadvantaged person has been and will continue to be quite broad, so municipalities will see an increase in groups applying for COPTER exemptions. As well, confining the use of a property or space within a property to only the disadvantaged persons’ group is a permissible restriction, therefore many groups who would not have qualified for a COPTER exemption in the past now will qualify with these changes. As a side note, use of the term “amelioration of the conditions” broadens the types of programming / services that would qualify – amelioration is defined in the dictionary as “the process of making a bad or unpleasant situation better” (Cambridge) – again quite wide open to interpretation.
Another impactful change made to COPTER was to expand the types of supportive living and continuing care homes (Type B & Type C respectively, licensed under the Continuing Care Act) as well as adding temporary or transitional accommodation that could apply for an exemption under COPTER. A requirement to pay rent for temporary or transitional accommodation is not considered a restriction. Also, language has now been added to COPTER to expressly exclude affordable housing accommodation.
Stakeholders were seeking better definitions for many of the ambiguous terms in COPTER, however the only definitions that were expanded on were under Section 7 – Meaning of Restricted. The changes added a few clauses to better define “fees of any kind”: this term now specifically includes rent, and a “minor entrance fee” means a fee that would not unreasonably prohibit the use of the property by the public or intended target group. Also, Section 7(3) regarding not permitting use of a property for safety, liability, or protection of property (bold was the added change) was further clarified to include administrative areas, parking lots, storage areas, or other similar areas.
Finally, the COPTER changes also expanded the list of “professional sports franchises”.
These latest amendments to COPTER (made by M.O. MAG:007/25 – Municipal Affairs) will come into effect January 1, 2026. Municipal Affairs has also indicated that the COPTER guide (Property Tax Exemptions in Alberta: A Guide) will be updated in the coming months and will be available on Open Alberta.
In conclusion, the latest COPTER changes have only dealt with a few of the definition issues that have been a concern for a considerable time. As well, the application of policy around “disadvantaged persons” will see a considerable increase in qualified applications for groups that would not have received a COPTER exemption in the past. If anyone has further questions, GOA has sent out a contact email: ma.aptp@gov.ab.ca.