Multiple business owners in Oshawa concerned over BIA levy increase

The Downtown Oshawa Business Improvement Area has decided to move forward with plans to substantially increase its budget.

The money will be coming from local businesses, despite some owners saying they can’t afford the increased financial burden.

Louise Parkes is a retired city councillor who owns Parmac Relationship Marketing Ltd. in downtown Oshawa. She’s also one of several business owners against the levy being imposed by the BIA.

With “many businesses being shut for up to three months, we have very little revenue. We’re burning through our cash,” Parkes said.

The increase comes as the BIA expands its budget this year from roughly $250,000 dollars to $650,000.

Ivano Labriccosa, who is the chair of the BIA, says the reason for the increased payments is because “there were some structural issues with by-laws and how we set our levies that really kept us behind.”

“We were the only BIA in Ontario to actually have a max cap on our levy.”

Prior to the rate increase, all 220 members were capped at paying $5,500 per property to the organization annually.

Now, 21 businesses are facing a significant rate increase. Among them, the Oshawa Clinic, which has four locations and is seeing a hike of about 600 per cent.

In a statement, the clinic’s CEO Jeff Warford told Global News “the recent decision by the City of Oshawa Council to more than double the BIA budget has impacted our organization the most as we are the largest ratepaying member.”

Warford went on to write that his payments went from $7,600 total for all locations to over $50,000.

The levies are in addition to commercial property taxes each business has to pay annually. The clinic, along with 20 others will cover roughly 50 per cent of the BIA’s total budget. The rest will be divided among the other 199 BIA members.

“You could look at that on paper and say, well it’s not fair that they’re paying all that amount,” said Ward 4 city councillor Derek Giberson.

“It’s exactly fair because everyone is paying based on each dollar they represent in the assessment pool.”

Businesses like Brew Wizards support the increase, saying the extra funding could help drive more business into the city.

“We need a strong team to help us, especially post-Covid,” said owner & CEO Kyle Cornick.

“The BIA has a lot of great ideas as to how to get people downtown.”

As for Parkes, she says the group that’s paying the most plans to call on the premier if the new rates stay in place.

The BIA said Tuesday a motion will be going to city council to reduce levies by 25 per cent for the rest of 2020 due to the pandemic.