Halifax, July 24, 2024 – Businesses across Atlantic Canada are being vastly overcharged in property taxes compared with their residential counterparts, finds a new report from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB). The report comes as over 7 in 10 small businesses across the region claim property taxes are the biggest municipal issue currently impacting their business. Furthermore, with 5 in 10 businesses citing surging rental prices as a contributor to the cost of doing business, small businesses are finding it increasingly difficult to absorb increased tax rates.
“By closing the tax gap and reducing property taxes overall, Atlantic Canadian Municipalities can become more business friendly,” stated Alex Oulton, Policy Analyst for CFIB. “CFIB urges all municipalities in the Atlantic provinces to re-evaluate their property taxes and address their property tax gap. Further, all provincial governments should look to Newfoundland and Labrador, who has eliminated their portion of property taxes, as an example to strive for.”
Commercial properties across Atlantic Canada often pay double or even triple their residential counterparts. In some cases, as seen in Rothesay, New Brunswick, commercial properties are paying 3.26 times more than their residential counterparts. Another example is St. John’s Newfoundland where commercial properties on a property assessment of $500,000 will pay $10,200 more in property taxes compared to residential property. The largest property tax gap in each of their respective provinces were Campbellton, Charlottetown, Cape Breton Regional Municipality and St. John’s.
“The Atlantic Tax Gap Report provides an opportunity for all four Atlantic provinces to learn from one another, while also allowing provinces and municipalities to look inward at other municipalities across their province to gather a full picture of the tax unfairness” says Duncan Robertson, Senior Policy Analyst for CFIB.
To ease the property tax burden, CFIB recommends that municipalities in Atlantic Canada commit to the following recommendations:
• Engage in sustainable spending practices by ensuring operational budgets do not exceed inflation and population growth.
• Reduce property taxes
• Close the gap between residential and commercial property tax rates
• Reduce the provincial Tax levy to be in line with NS ($0.30), and further reduce it completely to be inline with Newfoundland and Labrador
Some provinces receive specific recommendations, please see the report for details.
For media enquiries or interviews, please contact:
Duncan Robertson, CFIB
902-580-4538
Duncan.Robertson@cfib.ca
Methodology
Atlantic Municipal Survey: The survey period was from June 28 to July 20, 2023. The number of respondents was 370. For comparison purposes, the margin of error for a probability sample of the same size is +/-5.0 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
CFIB Your Voice Survey: The survey period was from September 7-21, 2023. The number of respondents was 2,687. For comparison purposes, the margin of error for a probability sample of the same size is +/- 1.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
About CFIB
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) is Canada’s largest association of small and medium-sized businesses with 97,000 members across every industry and region, including 10,200 in Atlantic Canada. CFIB is dedicated to increasing business owners’ chances of success by driving policy change at all levels of government, providing expert advice and tools, and negotiating exclusive savings. Learn more at cfib.ca.
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