A new ranking from the accounting firm KPMG shows the City of Calgary being the most expensive city to do business in.

With being just 35 minutes to the Downtown core of Calgary, Okotoks is looking to benefit from their proximity to the big city but also not having a big blow not just financially to future and current businesses setting up shop in town.

Economic Development Manager Shane Olson says the Town still does maintain the Alberta Advantage when it comes to corporate tax rates in comparisons to other provinces.

"Okotoks has certainly enjoyed a lower business property tax rate, our current rate is about 38 percent," he says. "So it is substantially different it's about a 350 percent reduction. It would cost 350 percent less in terms of business property taxes to operate in Okotoks than perhaps some of the other neighbouring communities."

Shane Olson, Manager of Economic Devleopment for the Town of Okotoks.

Olson says seeing reports like that better heighten the real advantages that having a business in Okotoks can have.

"We're competitive to other municipalities of our size and we're hopeful that competitive nature as well as the available workforce that we have, a highly educated workforce in Okotoks. Will help not only our existing business expand as they plan into the future but also to attract new innovative companies to our community."

Olson says he knows companies are reading into what the Town has to offer for potential businesses.

"It is very important to highlight the cost advantages, we can also do that through some of the publicity that we get as well as the paid advertising that we do in some of the trade journals and magazines in Alberta that are read by those CEO's and decision makers that are wanting to come to our community."

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