A survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent businesses is showing more than half of its small businesses are no longer reporting all crime to their property.
According to the survey released on Jan. 21, only around four-in-ten businesses “always” file a police report when experiencing crime. Similarly, around the same percentage of businesses say they are satisfied by response time or service provided by law enforcement.
The CFIB says this trend is “signalling a growing loss of confidence in the public safety system.”
This survey further confirms what businesses have told Black Press, as multiple downtown Kelowna business workers expressed their concerns with police response times, and some saw filing police reports as “futile.”
“When businesses tell us they no longer call the police or file reports, that’s a serious warning sign,” said Ryan Mitton, CFIB’s Director of Legislative Affairs for B.C. “We are hearing that confidence in the system is breaking down. Crime is not only becoming more common for small businesses, but increasingly something they feel forced to manage on their own.”
The survey also recorded that 85 per cent of recorded businesses felt their taxes are not translating to community safety and that 60 per cent of owners are concerned of safety for themselves, staff and customers.
MLA for the Kelowna-Mission area, Gavin Dew, commented on the survey, saying the results represent a “dangerous loss of confidence in the justice system.
CFIB gathered responses from 332 CFIB businesses for the survey from Oct. 9 to 24, 2025.
To protect your business from crime, the City of Kelowna is recommending to look at its Business Safety Toolkit, which is found at storymaps.arcgis.com.