For many B.C. storefront operators, crime is no longer treated as an occasional disruption. It is becoming part of the cost of opening the doors. New findings from Business Improvement Areas of B.C. say 89 per cent of participating businesses believe governments are not doing enough to address repeat offending, retail crime and public safety, while majorities also report worsening operating conditions and concerns about employees.
The frustration is colliding with another expense. Starting October 1, the province will apply seven per cent PST to taxable security services. B.C. says it is simultaneously expanding programs aimed at chronic property offenders, but business groups argue merchants are being asked to pay more for protection before they see enough improvement on the street. The result is a sharper debate over who should carry the financial and human cost of public disorder.
A Small Sample, but a Loud Warning
BIABC’s findings come from 100 businesses in communities across British Columbia, so they should be read as a snapshot rather than a census. Even with that limitation, the pattern is striking. Sixty-five per cent called public safety and street disorder significant concerns, while 63 per cent said operating conditions had worsened over the previous year. Another 89 per cent said governments were not doing enough about repeat offending, retail crime and public safety.
The organization represents most of B.C.’s roughly 80 business improvement districts and about 55,000 small businesses, giving it a broad window into main streets. Its respondents pointed repeatedly to open drug use, aggressive behaviour, vandalism and shoplifting. Those are not abstract policy terms for a café owner replacing a window or a clerk closing alone at night. They are daily operating conditions, and the latest results show how deeply those experiences are shaping confidence in government responses.
Crime Is Becoming a Recurring Business Expense
The pressure described by merchants did not begin with the latest findings. A BIABC study conducted in November 2025 collected responses from 260 businesses and found nearly nine in ten said repeat non-violent crime had a moderate to very significant impact on their operations or commercial area. Almost 40 per cent reported losses above $5,000, while business groups documented larger totals in places such as Kamloops and Prince George.
Those costs go well beyond missing merchandise. A broken door can mean repairs, an insurance deductible and lost trading hours. Incidents can lead to guards, cameras, patrols, locked displays and extra staffing. The B.C. Chamber of Commerce has warned that small firms have less room than large chains to absorb those expenses. When the same storefront is hit repeatedly, the effect is cumulative: money that might have gone into wages, renovations or inventory is redirected toward simply keeping the doors open.
The New Security Tax Arrives at a Sensitive Moment
Beginning October 1, 2026, B.C.’s provincial sales tax will apply at seven per cent to taxable security services, including services supplied by licensed security businesses and private investigators. It was announced in Budget 2026 as part of a PST expansion to several professional services. For businesses already paying for guards, patrols or monitoring because of theft and disorder, the timing has become a political flashpoint.
Business groups have framed the measure as an added charge on a cost many storefront operators no longer view as optional. The concern is tangible in individual cases. During debate in the legislature, an opposition MLA cited Vancouver retailer Caren McSherry as spending about $7,000 a month on security. The province argues the broader tax changes align B.C. more closely with other jurisdictions and help fund public services. Merchants counter that taxing protective measures while crime concerns remain elevated sends exactly the wrong signal directly.
B.C. Says Its Repeat-Offender Response Is Expanding
The province says it is not standing still. Budget 2026 provides $16 million over two years to expand the Chronic Property Offending Intervention Initiative, adding 13 regional hubs and bringing the network to 25 hubs. The province says the system can support enhanced supervision for as many as 865 people involved in repeat violent, property and public-disorder offending, with additional correctional staff and dedicated prosecution resources.
The model combines enforcement with case management rather than arrest alone. Provincial descriptions include closer monitoring, stronger coordination with Crown counsel, release planning and connections to housing, mental-health and addiction services. That approach matters because chronic offending often intersects with instability that policing by itself cannot resolve. For business owners, however, the test is practical: fewer repeat incidents outside their own doors today. The gap between an expanded program and merchants’ current frustration explains why both claims can be true at the same time.
Province-Wide Crime Data Tell a More Complicated Story
Police-reported statistics do not show a simple surge in every type of crime. Statistics Canada reported B.C.’s overall Crime Severity Index at 92.4 in 2025, down two per cent from 2024. The province’s non-violent Crime Severity Index fell 3.2 per cent to 90.9, while the violent index rose 2.2 per cent to 98.0. The police-reported crime rate, meanwhile, edged up 0.3 per cent to 6,943 incidents per 100,000 people.
Those figures do not invalidate what merchants are reporting. Province-wide indicators average together communities and offence categories, while a shop owner may experience the same storefront repeatedly. Reporting behaviour also matters: business groups say some owners stop calling police for lower-level incidents because they believe it will not change the outcome. The conclusion is not that one set of numbers must be wrong. It is that local commercial disorder can remain intense even when broader non-violent crime measures are easing overall.
Repeat Offending Is Real, but the Evidence Needs Context
Statistics Canada’s recent reconviction study followed nearly 70,000 adults released from custody or beginning community sentences in five provinces, including British Columbia. Half were reconvicted within three years. The rate was 66 per cent among people leaving custody and 40 per cent among those serving community sentences. Property offences appeared among the common new convictions, and people with extensive prior records had especially high reconviction rates.
The findings help explain why repeat offending commands so much political attention, but they are not a real-time measure of today’s B.C. retail crime. The cohort entered correctional programs in 2015-16, and the study combined five jurisdictions. Statistics Canada also cautioned that factors such as housing, employment, education, community support and substance use could not be fully captured. The evidence therefore supports targeted intervention without reducing the problem to a single cause. Persistent offending is measurable; the conditions that drive it are more complicated.
Employees Are Absorbing Part of the Cost
BIABC’s findings show why business groups increasingly describe public safety as a labour issue as well as a crime issue. Sixty-eight per cent of respondents said they were worried about crime’s impact on employees, and half said safety concerns were making recruitment and retention more difficult. Earlier 2025 findings were similar: 74 per cent reported increased fear and anxiety among staff, while 61 per cent said they had raised spending on security measures.
That pressure is easy to miss. A restaurant can replace a broken pane; replacing an experienced employee who no longer wants the closing shift is harder. Managers may change schedules or restrict hours so workers are not alone. Customers may also increasingly avoid a block they perceive as unsafe, reducing foot traffic just as labour costs rise. Repeated disorder creates a second bill beyond theft and repairs: the cost of keeping people willing to work there today.
Businesses Want Enforcement and Social Supports Working Together
The debate is framed as a choice between enforcement and social services, but B.C. business groups are asking for elements of both. BIABC has called for action on repeat offending while also pressing governments to address housing, mental health, addiction treatment and prevention. The B.C. Chamber of Commerce has similarly supported added Crown capacity and action on prolific offenders alongside addiction-treatment options.
The province’s own repeat-offender programs reflect that mixed approach. Enhanced supervision is paired with connections to housing and health supports because chronic property crime can be tied to unstable living conditions, addiction and untreated illness. That does not erase the harm to a shopkeeper dealing with theft or aggression. It does, however, underline why durable reductions are difficult to achieve through one institution. Police, prosecutors, courts, corrections and health services touch parts of the cycle. Businesses are asking for those systems to feel coordinated at street level.
October 1 Will Turn the Argument Into a Practical Test
The next date is October 1, when the seven per cent PST begins applying to taxable security services. By then, the expanded chronic-property-offender initiative will also be moving from announcement into implementation. That creates a political test: businesses will be watching whether conditions improve quickly enough to offset resentment over paying tax on private protection they believe government failures made necessary.
The Chamber has called for security services to be removed from the PST expansion and for tax relief for crime-affected businesses. The government, meanwhile, says its tax-base changes are designed to support public services and that its $16-million repeat-offender expansion directly targets property crime and street disorder. Neither side can settle the dispute with rhetoric alone. If merchants see fewer break-ins, threats and recurring incidents, confidence could recover. If conditions remain unchanged while security bills rise, the phrase “taxing safety” is likely to become more potent for small-business advocates.
