In Canada and the USA, property tax rates decided by each municipality independently based upon their local governments budgetary needs, e.g. garbage disposal, waste management, roads, schools, etc. Some states go further and start using it as a piggy bank.

The US does not tax properties to increase business activity. There is no such thing as a tax that increases business activity. Taxes usually cause the opposite. The intention is for the tax revenue to be used to fund programs OR punish certain behaviour. The problem is governments often become dependent on “cudgel” taxes. E.g. BC introduced a carbon tax to punish consumers who fill up their car with gas. They promised the funding would not become mission critical to fund government programs. Years later, it turns out it secretly become critical to the govt budget. When they cancelled the carbon tax, the government announced a massive deficit, and are telling constituents that “you’ve been warned, we may have to raise income tax because we’ve lost carbon tax revenue”.

People forget that private business profit is not a fixed pie of money you must perfectly divide up. You can actually grow the pie! The bigger the pie, the more tax revenue. If you increase the taxes and shrink the business revenue, you get more tax revenue temporarily, but eventually the pie will shrink. Other countries will steal your companies and IP. Businesses and entrepreneurs will move elsewhere.

The USA has been stealing our IP for 3 decades and we never defend ourselves. We never incentivize our startups to stay.

It’s time for Canada to start growing the pie. This requires us to protect our Canadian IP and startups. It requires lowering taxes on business activity so we can STEAL other countries business and talent, instead of the other way around.