Protect Your Land – Get a Tax Break

Have you ever noticed that new malls and housing complexes are often named after the natural space that was removed when they were constructed; Pine Grove, Forest Ridge, Echo Woods? These pretty names are often all that is left for the wildlife that once called this space home.

If you own a piece of ecologically sensitive land that you would like to protect for years of come, the Ecological Gifts Program can be a good option in ensuring long-term protection for your wild space while providing significant tax benefits.

The Ecological Gifts Program

Since 1995, Environment Canada's Ecological Gifts Program has enabled individual and corporate landowners to protect their cherished piece of nature in perpetuity by donating ecologically sensitive land to an environmental charity or government body.

Ecological gifts can be outright donations of land titles or certain interests in lands, including conservation covenants, easements and servitudes. The latter three are written documents where the donor agrees to give certain rights to a conservation group in perpetuity. These legally-binding agreements are registered on the title of the subject property, binding future owners of the property to the terms of the agreement.

Corporate donors may deduct the amount of their gift directly from their taxable income. Individual donors will receive a donation receipt for the full value of their ecogift that may be applied against 100 per cent of their annual income in the tax year that the gift was made, or it can be carried forward for up to six years after the year of the gift. Also, only 25 per cent of the capital gain on their land is taxed, instead of the usual 50 per cent.

The Ecological Gifts team can put potential donors in touch with eligible recipient organisations (usually approved registered environmental charities) who share similar values so that they can discuss various conservation options, including donations of full title, conservation easements, covenants or servitudes, and life estates.

In cooperation with many partners, Environment Canada administers the Program under the Income Tax Act and makes sure that the participating charities are committed to land protection so donors can feel reassured that their wild space will be permanently protected.

Land Protection

Vast wild spaces are eaten away and ecological services are degraded by urban and industrial development each year, having a significant impact on the 75 per cent of species at risk who are severely impacted by habitat disturbance. The survival of species at risk and other wildlife is greatly improved through land protection initiatives.

Over the past ten years, private and corporate landowners have made almost 500 donations through the Ecological Gifts Program. In so doing they have helped to protect nearly 45 000 hectares of ecologically sensitive land. The value of these donations is more than $141 million. The ecogifts made since 1995 have been as varied as the Canadian landscape itself – ranging from wetlands and boreal forests to prairie grasslands and rocky coastal cliffs – and each contributes to a cleaner, healthier and more sustainable Canada.