One business organization says its members have made their views on Metro Vancouver’s transit referendum known loud and clear.
According to a poll released by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), 80% of Metro Vancouver business owners said they would vote no to raising the provincial sales tax 0.5% increase to pay for transit improvements. Just 17% said they would vote yes.
The online survey included 260 respondents, around 8% of the CFIB's total membership in Vancouver (around 3,000 businesses).
Business owners said they believed raising the sales tax in Metro Vancouver would result in more administrative time and costs (61%), less investment back into their businesses (49%) and would have a negative impact on sales (45%).
Sixty per cent of poll respondents said they did not believe new transportation funding was necessary and that improvements could be made with existing revenues. Of the 32% who said more revenues are needed, 49% picked a regional sales tax as their preferred method of raising funds; 41% chose mobility pricing; 37% said transit fares should be raised; and 33% said they would support a vehicle levy.
Based on the poll results, the CFIB says it will advocate against raising the PST.
“We'll be trying to respect our members' view on this, while trying to respect the minority that do think more funding is needed,” said Richard Truscott, CFIB vice president for BC and Alberta. The CFIB has no immediate plans to join the no side campaign.
"I think there's pretty broad consensus that we need to do something to fight congestion and to improve the transportation infrastructure and it really comes down to how we do that. Clearly small business owners are not big fans of adding a half point to the PST to do it."
Several other B.C. business groups have supported the tax increase and are actively campaigning for the yes side, including the Vancouver Board of Trade, the British Columbia Chamber of Commerce, and several business improvement areas and chambers of commerce across Metro Vancouver.
Those groups say transit and transportation improvements are urgently needed in the region to prevent congestion, grow the economy and accommodate the one million more people expected to move to the region by 2030.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said that 11% of survey respondents thought they would lose sales if the PST is raised 0.5%. The correct percentage is 45%.
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