(Photo: Discover Airdrie News Centre)

The Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses says considering any form of taxation, PST included, shouldn't be the first consideration in dealing with the economic fallout of dropping oil prices.

Amber Ruddy, Senior Policy advisor at the CFIB says it's far more prudent for the government to do an item by item check on the budget and trim excesses off before any talk of raising taxes occurs.

Ruddy says "it's not going to make small businesses in Airdrie and across the province confident if the government isn't looking at its own expenses first." Ruddy mentions the largest line item of the budge is government salaries, wages and pensions and "it's something that absolutely needs to be addressed when we have a $500 million dollar shortfall."

CFIB has the Entrepreneurial City Study that shows Airdrie is a great place to do business, one of the best in Canada. Ruddy says that for small businesses across the province, introducing new taxes and revenue "could see an impact in terms of people not wanting to shop here...if we have taxes on par, we'll lose the Alberta Advantage."

The CFIB is launching its "Red Tape" campaign to fight tax hikes in the next provincial budget.

More information on the CFIB and the Red Tape campaign can be found on their website here.