The age-old debate of taxes versus value for services was reignited Thursday at city hall as more than 50 people lined up to give input at a public hearing on the city's budgets for 2020 to 2023.  

The business community urged the city to stop raising taxes. 

Janet Riopel, Edmonton Chamber of Commerce president and CEO, told council she's lobbied all levels of government about the costs to small and medium-sized businesses. 

"It has to stop," Riopel said Thursday evening. "This piling-on of costs, these taxes, fees, levies, this new legislation — all of that is breaking the backs of business." 

Riopel said the chamber has presented its position to the city for the past five years in hopes of seeing a change in approach. 

"There is a feeling of great fear, I would say, in the business community and some are just losing hope." 

Adam Guiney, the owner of manufacturing business Antrim Industries Ltd., told council he has had to cut 40 per cent of his staff and has rolled back wages and benefits in recent years. 

"There's only so much you can squeeze, there's only so much you can sharpen the pencil," Guiney said. 

The manufacturing industry competes on an international market, Guiney said, with most of his customers in the U.S. and the Middle East. 

Compared to their counterparts in Texas, he said expenses in Alberta are far higher. He's considering a move to the Lone Star State unless Edmonton creates a more competitive environment. 

"We cannot be taxed under the same category as retail for example that operates at higher margins and pays basic minimum wages." 

Riopel noted that businesses continue to re-evaluate their operations regularly and are looking for the same from the city. 

'We haven't championed any particular capital project," Riopel said. "We need you to question those things, to query them."

Coun. Ben Henderson said he's worried cutbacks and layoffs will have a spiral effect and end up putting people out of work. 

"If we start really pulling back on our infrastructure spend, at the same time the province starts pulling back on its infrastructure spend — we met with the construction industry a few weeks ago — that begins to be scary for them," he said. 

"I worry if we start looking at the level of cuts that would take to get down to zero that we make that problem significantly worse."