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Calgary businesses are struggling to cope with the combined impacts of minimum wage hikes, soaring property taxes and the provincial carbon levy, says a new survey by the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.

And with an even larger burden facing merchants in the new year, the chamber is calling on all three levels of government to spare more thought to the plight of small- and medium-sized businesses that have endured soaring costs even as the city slowly re-emerges from a punishing economic downturn.

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Zoe Addington, the chamber’s director of policy and government affairs, said business owners are seeing thousands of dollars added to their expenditures, which ultimately impacts their employees and customers.

“Businesses are getting hit with additional costs from all levels of government, and it is making it increasingly hard to run a successful business in Calgary,” she said.

“Policies such as increases to the minimum wage, rising municipal property taxes, and Alberta’s carbon levy, (the) merits can be weighted on their own, but layered together are causing harm.”