Historic Shaunavon Hotel taken over by Town of Shaunavon for unpaid tax bill

For the past 11 years, Randy Kaniuk has dedicated his life to restoring the Historic Shaunavon Hotel in Shaunavon, Sask.

He's hauled 42 dumpsters of lathe and plaster from the century-old building, replaced 23,000 kilograms of rotted pipe, dug nine metres of coal soot from the basement and has foregone a paycheck as he poured his earnings into restoring the building.

But earlier this month, he received a notice from the Town of Shaunavon that they were taking over the building's title in lieu of about $50,000 in back property taxes. Kaniuk has 30 days to vacate the property and remove all of his personal possessions, according to the notice. 

For Kaniuk, the fate of his business mirrors what's happening in many small Prairie towns.

In his case, a run of bad luck including an oil boom going bust, an expensive roofing bill and the COVID-19 pandemic all hitting within the space of a couple of years left him unable to pay his property taxes at the 96-room hotel, which includes a bar and restaurant.

"I have had literally three bad years and lost in every one of them. And of course, the community needs its money and so they're taking over."

In each of the past three years Kaniuk has accumulated a tax bill of $10,000, plus interest and penalties. Kaniuk said the total property tax bill is now more than $50,000.

'We had our roof blown off'

In a March 30 council meeting, the Town of Shaunavon, which is about 280 kilometres southwest of Regina and has about 1,700 residents, carried a motion to acquire the 10 parcels of land owned by the hotel pursuant to the Tax Enforcement Act.

"I owe no one anything except the town for taxes, and it's just kind of unfortunate that we don't have something in place to help regular businesses that have been super crunched, and that's what's happened to us," Kaniuk said.

Kaniuk said this last year has been difficult for business.

"We had our roof blown off. We were getting some repairs on our roof. It was supposed to be a $1,000 repair that ended up doing a quarter million dollars damage to somebody that didn't have insurance. So things are difficult. No question."

Kaniuk said he's worried the 113-year-old hotel will suffer the same fate as many of Saskatchewan's iconic grain elevators.

"They're torn down because they incur a certain tax bill every year. So it's cheaper for the company to rip it down than to leave these iconic structures peppered across the communities and in the province."

Kaniuk hopes the Town of Shaunavon will keep the hotel operating and he would like to stay on to manage the business.

Representatives from the Town of Shaunavon declined an interview.

"It's because we are in proceedings, so I'm not able to comment," said Tara Fritz, chief administrative officer for the town.