City gets $10,000 for biz smarts

PENTICTON – The city's business smarts were given a $10,000 gold star at a Vancouver conference this week.

The municipality won the 2013 Open for Business Award by the province for assisting small businesses at the local government level. Other winners were Kelowna, Central Saanich, Chilliwack, Coquitlam, Fort St. James, and the City of Langley.

Newly minted Penticton Mayor Garry Litke received the prize Thursday while attending the Union of British Columbia Municipalities annual conference in Vancouver.

The mayor says Penticton "is the perfect place for entrepeneurs".

The city was noted for favourable property taxes that benefit small business, an economic incentive zone program, a 30 per cent reduction in building permit fees and research data provision for small business.

To contact a reporter for this story, to send photos or videos, email Shannon Quesnel at squesnel@infotelnews.ca, call 250-488-3065, tweet @shannonquesnel1 or @InfoNewsPentict