Canada Revenue to swoop on refuge
There's a squawk about an outstanding tax bill

Gwen Preston, Vancouver Sun
Published: Wednesday, July 12, 2006

It's not uncommon for police to seize assets to pay an outstanding tax bill. They may encounter squawks of outrage when they try to do their duty at a Vancouver Island parrot shelter next week.

The World Parrot Refuge in Coombs is in trouble with the Canada Revenue Agency over $13,000 in unpaid employee deductions.

Society co-founder Wendy Huntbatch said she has tried everything to pay the non-profit society's bill. "I've tried three banks to get a second mortgage on my house," she said. "But when they know the money is going to charity they kind of look at you like you're nuts."

Huntbatch and her 10 employees care for sick, injured and abandoned parrots. In their special care unit they administer chemotherapy to birds with cancer, medication to birds with epilepsy and arthritis, and massages to birds with deformed or atrophied wings and legs. The shelter's payroll is $7,300 every two weeks.

The more than 500 healthy birds fly free in a stand-alone 23,000-square-foot enclosure, heated to tropical temperatures and filled with trees, vines and toys. They eat nuts, seeds, fresh fruit and vegetables. To pay for all this costs $700 a day.

The problems with the CRA developed over the winter, when tourist revenues dropped. "We were lucky to get $200 a day," Huntbatch said.

"One time when payroll came around we only had enough for the net payroll," she said. "We didn't have any money to pay the deductions."

Through the winter Huntbatch's tax bill grew. "My first priority is always the birds," she said. "I understand that what we did was not the proper way to operate, but what would anyone do?"

Since the beginning of July tourism has increased. "Now we are in a position to support ourselves and hopefully pay back what we owe," she said. "But they wouldn't wait."

Last weekend, Canada Revenue Agency seized the refuge's bank accounts. Huntbatch also received notice that authorities will arrive Monday to seize assets. CRA representatives were unable to comment, saying only that they are following protocol.

"I don't think they'll take the parrots," Huntbatch said. "What would they do with them? But I don't know what else they're going to take. I don't have much."

Huntbatch began rescuing parrots 13 years ago, when she gave up her job to work at the shelter full time, for no salary. She wants foremost to educate people that parrots are generally not good family pets.

"They are extremely intelligent and very needy," she said. "And they belong in flocks, not alone in a tiny cage eating only sunflower seeds."

Huntbatch, who said she has never encountered this type of financial trouble before, is dedicated to what she does. "I won't shut down, no matter what it takes," she said.