Mayoral candidate Olivia Chow has joined rival David Soknacki in a call to extend annual reductions in the share of property taxes paid by small businesses.

The city intends to meet its reduction target — a small-business tax rate 2.5 times the residential rate — in 2015. Chow said Friday that she would continue the reductions to “at least” 2020.

Soknacki, who helped create the reduction program under former mayor David Miller, says the program should continue until rates are competitive with the “upper band” of commercial rates in the surrounding municipalities, where taxes are lower.

Chow presented a second proposal that Soknacki introduced first: allowing businesses to obtain licences online rather than at a single city office in East York. She also promised to launch a Toronto version of a British Columbia program that helps immigrant entrepreneurs start businesses.

And she said she would ask the provincial government to reduce Toronto’s business education tax rate so that it is competitive with those in the surrounding regions. City council made that request last decade under then-mayor David Miller.

Chow, originally from Hong Kong, will make a concerted effort to win the votes of immigrant voters. She appears to be courting the lower-income residents among whom incumbent Rob Ford has been strong. And she is seeking to defend herself against her opponents’ frequent accusation that she is an eager taxer.

Chow, speaking at the Tamil grocery Shankar & Co. in Scarborough, argued that Ford has done little to help businesses even though he “talks a good line.” She took more than one shot at Ford’s recent trip to Los Angeles, saying Ford has “spent more time becoming a celebrity in Hollywood” than taking real action to assist struggling entrepreneurs.

“(Businesses) still have to apply on paper. New immigrants trying to start their business, there’s no help for them — there’s no program, no mentorship program,” Chow said.

“I actually have a concrete, practical plan that can be implemented immediately,” she said. “It doesn’t make sense at all, in this 21st century, to still have paper applications. What do you mean you can’t register online?”

Soknacki suggested that Chow and other candidates are copying him.

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But if they have to borrow all of their ideas from me during the campaign, what will they do if they actually get elected?” he said in a statement.

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