Small and medium-sized businesses are overwhelmingly opposed to Greater Vancouver's parking tax, according to a recent survey conducted by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB).

The results, which show 95 per cent of members surveyed are opposed, and 88 per cent are strongly opposed, add further opposition to the controversial tax that is designed to raise funds toward transportation infrastructure in the Lower Mainland.

More than 3,000 Greater Vancouver businesses are appealing their parking taxes with the B.C. Assessment Authority, which is managing reviews on behalf of TransLink, the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority. More than 1,000 protest letters have also been filed.

"It hurts the small businesses the most," says Laura Jones, the CFIB's vice-president for B.C. and the Yukon. "On average, it's costing (businesses) $1,200 (per year), but if you look at the per-employee cost, small businesses are paying much more per employee than bigger businesses. So it's very regressive."

Small businesses with one to five employees would pay $368 per employee while large companies with 100 to 499 employees would pay $8.60 per employee.

The CFIB represents 100,000 small and medium-sized businesses across Canada, including 10,000 in the B.C. and Yukon.

Jones says it's "simply not fair" to burden small businesses with a parking tax when they are already paying high municipal property taxes on the same sites and face many other business pressures. She notes Vancouver business owners already pay six times more in property taxes than homeowners but use fewer services, while businesses in surrounding municipalities also pay more than residential taxpayers.

The parking tax is based on $1.02 per square metre of parking area, but in addition to parking stalls, it applies to driveways, lanes between parking spots, loading docks, passageways between the front and rear of a building and bicycle racks.

Critics are referring to it as a "pavement tax" rather than a "parking tax."

Jones and other opponents contend Vancouver is a testing ground for similar parking taxes that could be imposed in other Canadian cities.

"Other municipalities are watching this closely and the regional boards are watching this closely, as another potential way they could raise taxes," says Jones. "It's something that has the potential to be very destructive across the country."

The parking site tax is intended to raise $25 million for TransLink's $1.9 billion three-year improvement plan, which includes eight major new roads, a new Golden Ears bridge, a more modern and expanded bus fleet, and an upgraded cycling-path network.

But Jones says the parking tax is only designed to raise a small portion of the total funds needed, and there is a serious "accountability gap" withing TransLink because board members, who approved the tax before it became part of provincial law, are not elected to their positions.

TransLink sets transportation policy and approves and funds major projects (often with the provincial and federal governments) on behalf of municipalities within the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD). Most TransLink board members are elected mayors and councillors from various municipalities within the GVRD.

But Jones contends they have "a serious lack of accountability" because they are not elected to their TransLink posts, voters likely do not cast ballots for them based strictly on transportation matters, and not all municipalities within the GVRD are represented on the board.

The CFIB survey results also show 12 per cent of small and medium-sized business owners would consider leaving Greater Vancouver - so "that tells you just how businesses are impacted," says Jones - while 55 per cent would reduce investment in their companies and 37 per cent would reduce their own pay.

Most (58 per cent) say they would also raise their price but many, notably restaurant owners, face intense competition and can't raise prices for fear customers would go elsewhere.

Jones and leaders of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties, the Fair Tax Coalition, Business Owners and Management Association, Independent Contractors and Business Association of British Columbia, and Vancouver Board of Trade and many other groups are asking their members to contact TransLink board members - many of whom are new following last fall's municipal elections - and urge them to change the transportation infrastructure-funding mechanism.

Groups are also seeking assistance from MLAs and provincial Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon.

Jeff Rank, national director of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP) Vancouver chapter, says industrial building operators are the worst hit. They are paying three to five times more than other businesses but their premises have fewer parking stalls on average than office and retail buildings.

If an industrial property has parking stalls in the front and a loading area in the back, it also has to pay for passageways between the front and back.

"The only justification (for the parking tax) is that TransLink has decided to impose this tax to penalize the people who are responsible for transportation and goods-handling in the Lower Mainland," says Rank.

He says industrial building owners are paying more because their properties are larger than their office and retail counterparts.

Rank says TransLink also has approval to increase the tax to $1.43 per square metre and could introduce more hikes.

"Everybody believed we were going to be paying between $30-$40 per stall and that is, in fact, not how it works," says Rank, adding the dispute boils down to how TransLink has interpreted the provincial law that allows it to impose the tax.

Rank says the parking levy is a form of double taxation, because businesses already pay property taxes.

But government and municipal buildings, schools and other public structures are exempt.

He stresses NAIOP and other groups are in favour of TransLink's efforts to improve transportation infrastructure and raise money for it, but they disagree with the way they're trying to raise the funds.

Paul Sullivan, a principal with Burgess Cawley Sullivan and Associates (BCS TaxCo), says a fuel-tax levy is the best way to raise funds for the transportation projects.

Sullivan says industrial-property owners comprise 75 per cent of his firm's clients who are appealing their parking-tax charges.

The amount of money at stake is very high for industrial property owners, he adds, because they are under additional pressures resulting from property-tax increases as a result of high land values, increasing fuel costs and the strong Canadian dollar, among other factors.

BCS TaxCo has filed appeals to the property assessment review panel, which represents the first stage of the appeal process and will begin hearing cases in March, and the property assessment review board, which will hear appeals of panel decisions. The deadline for filing appeals to the assessment review board is April 30.

(Monte Stewart can be reached at monte@businessedge.ca)