{"id":510897,"date":"2026-03-03T04:57:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T04:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/510897\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T04:57:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T04:57:26","slug":"calgary-businesses-hit-with-double-property-tax-punch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/510897\/","title":{"rendered":"Calgary businesses hit with double property tax punch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Calgary business owners say they are being squeezed from both sides after a promised easing of municipal taxes was erased, and the province moves ahead with a sharp increase to the education property tax.<\/p>\n

A $500\u2011million jump in the provincial education requisition, announced in Alberta\u2019s latest budget, is expected to add nearly $350 to the average property tax bill. <\/p>\n

That combined with Calgary city council\u2019s decision to scrap a planned shift that would have reduced the non\u2011residential tax burden in 2026, many small businesses say they are bracing for another painful year.<\/p>\n

Vince Greco, who has run Monza Auto in northeast Calgary for 25 years, says the increasing bills are becoming impossible to absorb.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeave my building alone, we are just trying to make a living here,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve got a small place. We\u2019re paying over $15,000 a year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m scared to see the new property tax bill\u2026 I think it\u2019s going to be pretty large.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas has called the provincial increase the largest property tax hike<\/a> in the city\u2019s history. While the city\u2019s own portion adds roughly $50 to the average annual bill, the provincial hike is seven times that amount.<\/p>\n

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) says the timing could not be worse. The city\u2019s earlier plan was to shift one per cent of the tax burden from businesses to homeowners in 2026, a move council reversed to keep residential increases lower.<\/p>\n

Keyli Loeppky, CFIB\u2019s director for Alberta and Interprovincial Affairs, says the cumulative effect is threatening the survival of many small businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore businesses are closing than are opening,\u201d she said. \u201cOn their own, these increases may be smaller, but these things do add up and threaten the viability of small businesses within the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greco says he may have no choice but to raise prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll those families trying to make ends meet, they won\u2019t do repairs,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have to increase your labour rate just to make ends meet with the property tax.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement to CityNews, the province says Alberta remains the \u201cmost competitive place\u201d for businesses in Canada \u201cwith a $16.9\u2011billion tax advantage over other provinces\u201d and a corporate tax rate that remains at eight per cent, \u201cthe lowest in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Calgary business owners say they are being squeezed from both sides after a promised easing of municipal taxes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-510897","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-calgary","10":"tag-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}