Taxes, timelines top barriers to Alberta business

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ACC media release: October 15, 2020

For immediate release

EDMONTON — The Alberta Chambers of Commerce (ACC) has released initial data from the latest survey of its Alberta Perspectives market research program—survey one of a three-part series focusing on identifying challenges for local businesses.

Business operators identify insurance premiums tax (32 per cent), municipal utilities (28 per cent), corporate income tax (27 per cent), municipal business tax (27 per cent), municipal franchise fees (26 per cent), small business tax (25 per cent), and permitting fees (24 per cent) as major cost barriers, indicating that businesses are still struggling in a difficult economy.

Business operators identify insurance premiums tax, municipal utilities, corporate income tax, municipal business tax, municipal franchise fees, small business tax, and permitting fees as significant cost barriers they face.

"These preliminary data clearly show Alberta business operators continue to face obstacles and challenges to their competitiveness outside of the ongoing COVID-19 economic recession," says ACC President and CEO Ken Kobly. "While we undertake the lengthy process of restarting and recovering our provincial economy, there are still many areas where government can cut red tape and reduce barriers—providing much-needed support to our struggling businesses in the meantime."

Among the 26 per cent of respondents who have undertaken a development project, top barriers in the permitting process include timelines (57 per cent), quality and/or timeliness of communication (50 per cent) and subjectivity in guidelines (48 per cent) as top permit process barriers.

Survey respondents cite timelines, communication, and subjectivity as top permit process barriers.

The first survey in this series has garnered more than 200 responses to date from business operators. The second survey explores business supports and is now also live at https://bit.ly/3nS5P2M. To share the survey, please copy and paste the link as shown rather than sharing the unique URL from your browser.

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For comment, please contact:

Ken Kobly

President and CEO

Alberta Chambers of Commerce

(M) 780.975.1659

(P) 780.425.4180 Ext.5

kkobly@abchamber.ca

The Alberta Chambers of Commerce is a federation of 122 community-based chambers of commerce representing more than 25,000 job creators.

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