The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) took aim at municipal taxes on business June 25, ranking municipalities in B.C. based on the disparity between residential and commercial property levies.
"Progress in setting property tax rates that are fairer to B.C.'s small business owners has stalled," the group said in a press release.
According to CFIB, business owners can expect to pay almost triple what the owner of a residence might pay for property of the same value.
The organization placed Gibsons on the list for having one of the 55 largest gaps between residential and commercial property taxes. Sechelt was ranked 141st, ahead of the Lower Mainland municipalities and second only to Anmore and Bowen Island in the Vancouver Coast and Mountains region.
Sechelt and District Chamber of Com-merce president Christine Stefanik said she felt CFIB was right to target commercial property taxes in the province.
While Sechelt might have one of the lower tax gaps in the province, Stefanik said the issue raised by CFIB was an important one.
"One of the concerns from the Chamber is that business cannot participate in the blue box program that residential users can, despite the fact they pay two times the taxes," she said. "We envision that what will help us most is not increasing the tax rate. It is finding other benefits and reasons for people to set up here."
As president of the Gibsons and District Chamber of Commerce, Claudia Ferris agreed: "Our Town ofGibsonsbusinesses generally support their taxes going toconcrete economic development initiatives," she said.
Those include branding and marketing initiatives with Gibsons council, the efforts of volunteers and needed investments for the community's future, Ferris said.
"Sechelt may have a slightly lower tax rate thanGibsons, but businesses and residents are going to be paying the bill for buying out senior staff contracts," she explained, "and for lawsuits that might have been better resolved through dialogue."
According to CFIB, the province's worst commercial tax gap offenders were Coquitlam, Revelstoke and North Saanich, with a business rate over six times the residential rate, enough to earn it the top spot.
