The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) has ranked the business tax structures of B.C.'s 160 municipalities and found Gibsons and Sechelt on near opposite ends of the spectrum.
The study ranked towns based on their "tax gap," which is the municipally-set ratio of taxes businesses pay above similarly-valued residential properties with several taxes that the province levies, but municipalities collect added tax including hospital taxes, fire protection, the municipal finance authority and school costs.
Gibsons ranked in at the 23rd worst while Sechelt found itself at 137th.
CFIB director Brian Bonney said municipalities can use the rankings to help set goals for reducing the tax burden on small businesses, something the CFIB has been lobbying for.
For Sechelt, which has a business tax ratio of 2.05, Bonney's message is simple: "Good on you," he said.
For Gibsons, where the tax ratio is 3.5, Bonney's message is more of a call to action.
"They've got to get that under control. They've got to freeze their business taxes where they are and slowly reduce them back down to where Sechelt is, to where businesses are paying no more than twice what residents are paying," Bonney said.
In March, Bonney praised Gibsons for being one of only six municipalities in the province to be actively lowering its business tax ratio. Bonney said, though, if you look at Gibsons' record dating back to 2003, the tax gap is still higher.
Bonney argued that with reduced municipal spending and gradually shifting more of the tax burden to residents, small businesses that employ local residents and give back to their communities will be better off and benefit the community at large as a result.
He said the province can also learn from the report by reducing the taxes it levies on businesses for things like schools and hospitals.
Gibsons Mayor Barry Janyk said he had not seen CFIB's data, but sharply dismissed the report and the method of using the tax gap as opposed to the tax ratio for ranking.
"Why would they do that? Only an idiot would do that. You can't include taxation that we're not responsible for in the equation. That doesn't make sense," Janyk said.
Janyk agreed that businesses should be paying less tax, but quickly pointed out the last two Gibsons budgets, which have seen the ratio shrink.
As for spending less, Janyk said both residents and businesses demand services and Bonney's report takes in no consideration of value for tax dollars spent.
"You do the calculation on that, Mr. Bonney, and you will find municipalities, particularly ours, give not only good services, but exceptional service," Janyk said.
Janyk added that municipalities are seeing more and more downloading from senior levels of government and that Bonney's efforts would be better spent lobbying them.
"We can't spend less. How can we spend less when the provincial and federal governments give us more responsibilities and provide us less money to do it?" he said. "We're doing the best we can with the tools that we've got. The problem really rests with the provinces and the federal government."
Meanwhile, Sechelt Mayor Darren Inkster said he was also not aware of CFIB's report, but he was pleased for the nod.
"Any study that puts Sechelt in a favourable light, I would certainly want to read more about," Inkster said. "You always want to be seen and in practice to be friendlier to business and friendlier to the taxpayer as a community."
He added that delivering services "in a fair and efficient manner" was equally important and that taxation is just one of the sources of revenue for a municipality to rely on when making spending decisions.
