Business Taxation in the Cariboo-Chilcotin

A couple of reports have come forward regarding business taxation in our area:

1) CFIB (Can. Federation of Independent Business) Annual Municipal Tax Gap between Residential and Small Business for the 2010 Tax Rates

You can read their report here but according to them, the following gaps exist in Wells, Quesnel, Williams Lake and 100 Mile House

Wells - gap (business vs residential) of 2.25
Quesnel - gap (business vs residential) of 2.91
Williams Lake - gap (business vs residential) of 2.07
100 Mile House - gap (business vs residential) of 2.29

CFIB has called for an official gap between business to residential of 2 to 1.  Of all of the muncipalities in the Cariboo-Chilcotin - Williams Lake is the closest to the 2-1 gap of 2.07

Naturally - the UBCM (Union of BC Muncipalities) disputes their figures and states that the reason for the rate gaps is because of the spending that residents' want which I disagree with because in this area - I believe people want to see their local government scale back its spending, not ramp it up

For the Record:

District of Wells:

2010 Avg House Price - $59,662
2010 Residents Paid - $586
2010 Business Paid - $1,318

City of Quesnel:

2010 Avg House Price - $157,397
2010 Residents Paid - $1,628
2010 Business Paid - $3,831

City of Williams Lake:

2010 Avg House Price - $185,665
2010 Residents Paid - $1,992
2010 Business Paid - $4,387

District of 100 Mile House:

2010 Avg House Price - $180,840
2010 Residents Paid - $1,762
2010 Business Paid - $4,056

Also - Williams Lake Council received a report from its Manager of Economic Development on a new Business Attraction and Expansion strategy which you can read here  In the report - it laid out 2010 taxation (business) rates for Quesnel, Williams Lake and 100 Mile.  I'll review here the rates for residential, business and light/heavy industrial.  Note the rates include all taxation that residents' pay on your property taxes (MFA, local Regional District , School Tax and Municipal taxation)

City of Quesnel:

Residential - $1,034.29 per $100,000 of assessed property value
Business - $2,433.79 per $100,000 of assessed property value
Light Industry - $2,661.72 per $100,000 of assessed property value
Heavy Industry - $7,574.07 per $100,000 of assessed property value

City of Williams Lake:

Residential - $1,073.10 per $100,000 of assessed property value
Business - $2,362.96 per $100,000 of assessed property value
Light Industry - $4,849.52 per $100,000 of assessed property value
Heavy Industry - $9,923.45 per $100,000 of assessed property value

District of 100 Mile House:

Residential - $974.34 per $100,000 of assessed property value
Business - $2,242.71 per $100,000 of assessed property value
Light Industry - $2,574.45 per $100,000 of assessed property value
Heavy Industry - $6,957.63 per $100,000 of assessed property value