Don’t let municipalities crush my business with property taxes!

Small businesses already pay more than their fair share in property taxes.

Now, the Holt government wants to allow municipalities to set the commercial rate independently from the residential rate.

Icon of a dollar weight demolishing a small business

Municipalities will be able to increase the commercial rate BEYOND the current maximum of 1.7x the residential rate.

  Right now Future
Residential Multiplier You pay What could you pay to the city?
Fredericton 1.3286 1.7000 2.2586 Whatever they want!
Moncton 1.4231 1.6604 2.3629
Edmundston 1.6350 1.6000 2.6160
Bathurst 1.7750 1.7000 3.0175
Miramichi 1.7150 1.6000 2.7440

What did municipalities do when the previous 1.5 multiplier was replaced with a range of 1.4 to 1.7?

67% INCREASED the multiplier above 1.5.

51% MAXED OUT the multiplier to 1.7.

Small businesses can’t afford municipalities dumping costs on them anymore!

Hon. Susan Holt, Premier of New Brunswick

CC: Aaron Kennedy, Minister of Local Government

My business can’t afford to have municipalities set their own rate for commercial properties. Keep municipalities accountable! They need to control their costs, not pass them along to my business.

I’m already paying 1.7 times more than residential, and that doesn’t even account for the provincial portion of the property tax that your government takes!

Property taxes should be fair for all:

  • Do not eliminate the fixed property tax multiplier for commercial properties.
  • Modify the legislation to only allow municipalities the use of a multiplier that is 1.5X the residential rate or lower, and have a plan to reduce the multiplier to 1X.
  • Implement a four-year strategy to reduce the provincial portion of the property tax to be aligned with Nova Scotia, with a plan to reach zero (like in Newfoundland and Labrador).
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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. 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.