While empty storefronts in downtown Courtenay look awful, only three businesses have closed recently, and it isn鈥檛 the first time stores have closed in the city鈥檚 core.The real concern is that empty storefronts will become commonplace.Mayor Larry Jangula says the situation is complicated, an opinion supported by a recently retired downtown businessman.Reasons for business closures include online shopping, big box stores, minimum wage increases for potential shoppers and property tax increases, lists Blaine Douglas, who owned Rickson's Menswear for about three decades.His store鈥檚 property taxes rose 48 per cent since 2006, which underscores the call by some in November鈥檚 municipal election campaigns to reduce spending so taxes can be cut.Downtown property owner Mike Laver said taxes on four of his Courtenay commercial rental properties have increased between 30 and 51 per cent in five years.Noting owners of commercial properties pay taxes at a rate of almost three times what residential owners shell out, Laver wants the ratio adjusted to help businesses.Courtenay did just that last year, and the mayor acknowledges that tilting the ratio further would add to household taxes. That would cut more into the income of potential shoppers upon whom merchants rely.As the mayor said, the situation is complicated.So maybe it鈥檚 not fair to blame big box stores for building on the outskirts, undercutting prices charged by small business owners and sucking shoppers out of downtown.Except this scenario has played out in countless North American towns, and it鈥檚 easy to worry this is happening right here in the Comox Valley.It鈥檚 also easy for local politicians to distance themselves from the effects of their decisions.We can鈥檛 hold the effects of online shopping against them, and it must be well-nigh impossible to say no when the big boxes come calling. Still, they come with a cost to downtowns.editor@comoxvalleyrecord.com
