As land values rise, it’s beloved small businesses that feel the squeeze GlobeBC
Adrienne Tanner is a Vancouver journalist who writes about civic affairs
For me, it was Wonderbucks on Commercial Drive, a store that sold a combination of kitschy and funky household goods at low prices. It was a place you could wander in with your dog – they had treats behind the counter – and find things like holiday baking tins, candles and picnic supplies. I shopped there until 2017 when owner Bernie Moschenross announced he could no longer turn a profit at the current rent and tax rate. He held one final blowout sale.
Rising business taxes and rent increases drove most independent businesses from Robson Street years ago. And today cries are coming from the craft breweries that brought new life to formerly down-at-the-heels areas of East Vancouver. They complain new developments that followed them into the area have pushed their assessments and taxes too high and may force them to close.
But the fixes are not simple and most of the talk circles back to the status quo. Cities are required to balance their books, so any reduction in business taxes must be offset by an increase in residential property taxes. Residential property tax increases are not vote-getters and councils that raise them take a political risk.
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