Request to City Council to Create Small Business Subclass for Commercial Tax Relief

Thursday, March 3, 2022

On January 15, 2022, the Downtown Barrie BIA Board of Management submitted a request to Barrie City Council to create a small business subclass for commercial properties within the Downtown Barrie BIA boundary, similar to what other municipalities in Ontario have done.

The Downtown Barrie BIA Board also requested that Barrie City Council adopt a tax rate for this small business subclass set at a minimum of 30% reduction in the commercial property class tax rate lasting a minimum of two years. This would be comprised of a 15% reduction in the municipal portion of the property tax and a matching reduction of 15% of the provincial education portion of the property tax, again similar to what other municipalities have done.

This would mean that over 200 commercial properties within the Downtown Barrie BIA boundary would be eligible for tax relief which would positively impact the small business tenants of those properties.

For a property that has an assessment value of $1.6million, the savings would be approximately $6000 per year.

Please stay tuned for updates on how this official request moves forward.