The Downtown Kelowna Association says the province’s reversal offers relief, but hopes it prompts a broader look at the costs facing small businesses.
KELOWNA, B.C. — The Downtown Kelowna Association is welcoming the provincial government’s decision to halt its planned expansion of the Provincial Sales Tax, saying the move offers relief to downtown businesses already absorbing rising costs.
Premier David Eby announced Friday that the province is temporarily backing away from applying PST to professional services, saying the pause will remain in place “until the trade war is over.”
Downtown Kelowna Association executive director Paula Quinn said the proposed expansion was particularly concerning for downtown businesses because it would have applied PST to services such as security, an area many businesses already fund out of their own budgets to protect employees, customers and property.
Quinn pointed to the Business Improvement Areas of British Columbia’s characterization of the plan as a tax on safety, and said an added cost like that doesn’t simply disappear into a business’s bottom line.
While calling the reversal a positive outcome, Quinn said she hopes it prompts a broader look at the cumulative costs facing small businesses across the province.
“In downtown Kelowna, public safety is not an abstract conversation,” she said.
Quinn said the association will continue working with the City of Kelowna, the RCMP, bylaw officers, community organizations and its business members to find practical solutions to safety and cost pressures downtown.
She said the broader question worth exploring collectively is what more can be done to make British Columbia a better place to operate a business, employ people, invest and build strong communities.
Part of a Larger Trade Response
The PST reversal was paired with a separate $90-million tariff relief package announced the same day by Eby, part of the province’s ongoing response to trade tensions affecting B.C. businesses.
The planned expansion of PST to previously exempt professional services, including security services, had drawn concern from business groups across the province in the weeks leading up to Friday’s announcement, with critics arguing the added tax would compound existing cost pressures on small and mid-sized businesses already navigating a difficult economic environment.
No date has been set for when the paused PST expansion might be reconsidered, with the province linking any future decision to the resolution of ongoing trade disruptions.
