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In particular, the city is telling business outside the core to expect some “shock” on their non-residential property tax bills due to downtown Calgary’s high vacancy rate.

“For non-residential, the market change is causing a redistribution in taxes,” Harvey Fairfield, Calgary’s acting city assessor, told council Monday.

Fairfield said when assessment notices are mailed out in January next year, its estimated 73 per cent of non-residential properties will see a tax increase, and in turn 79 per cent of businesses will see a tax increase.

“Some of them are going to pay quite a bit more and that’s what council will be discussing (Tuesday), about whether we can cushion that blow for this year because it will be a bit of a shock for this year alone,” Nenshi said.

Already, in the first nine months of 2016, more than 11,000 Calgary businesses have either shut down or moved and on Tuesday, council is expected to discuss city up to $15 million in non-residential and business tax relief.

But Amber Ruddy, Alberta director of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, who sparred with Nenshi during the public hearing portion of Monday’s meeting, said council needs to do more for businesses.

“We’re looking at something that’s unprecedented. In the 15 years that we’ve been conducting our business optimism survey, we’ve never seen lower optimism levels than we have this year,” she said.

“We can’t have the City of Calgary going on business as usual while businesses are suffering significantly.”

Entrepreneur and 2017 council candidate David Winkler also addressed council Monday and said people are suffering during the downturn.

“There’s a massive disconnect between city hall and businesses,” he said.

“Every day, we worry about how are we going to pay our employees, how are we going to retain our customers, how are we going to pay our bills, how do we keep our doors open, and the city adds to that worry once again.”