Kelowna has been rated as the top city in Canada to start and grow a new business.
"We have seen a growth in the number of businesses established at 1.7 percent over the past year. We have a high level of self employment . Sixteen percent of working people in Kelowna are self employed, which is much higher than the national average".
Tedd Mallet is an economist with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business who conducted the study.
"We cover a broadbased small confidence index. We do this monthly. We collected this from Kelowna residents and found that their optomism level is considerably higher than the national average."
On the negative side, Kelowna has a high tax rate on businesses.
It is about 2.4 times the rate of tax paid and CFIB is encouraging municipal governments try to lower that ratio over time.
No other BC centre over 150 thousand cracked the top ten.
Sherbrooke, Quebec was rated second while Trois-Rivieres, Quebec was third.