After receiving complaints about businesses possibly operating without the proper paperwork, the City of Cold Lake will be reviewing their business licensing bylaw.
“This came about after a letter was sent to the mayor and council from the local chamber, expressing some people are feeling frustration," outlined Brad Schultz, manager of planning and development for the city, during Cold Lake's corporate priorities meeting on Tuesday, March 19.
The letter, which was sent in February by Cold Lake chamber president Ryan Lefebvre, explains how locals are becoming frustrated with how the city responds to a business that has been operating without the proper licensing.
"This has been identified to us by more than one member in several different industries, and although these members have brought it to the attention of the city administration, there doesn't appear to be any interest in follow-up," detailed Lefebvre in the letter to council.
He continued, "In a matter of fairness, ensuring all businesses have a license to operate within the City of Cold Lake ensures equal opportunity and safe business practices."
According to Schultz, since the downturn in the economy, the city is "noticing a different tone in the types of inquiries we're getting."
A few years ago, someone would call to confirm a contractor has their licensing in order before hiring the company.
"Whereas now, we’re perceiving that more of these concerns are coming from other businesses that are potentially in competition about the business they’re inquiring about," Schultz expressed.
Coun. Kirk Soroka said, “Because of the downturn in the economy, some of these brick and mortar businesses, or ones that work residential with licenses, they’re seeing all of these pop-ups taking work away from them. This is their only avenue for recourse, is to call and complain."
One of the obstacles city staff face when looking into it is their filing system.
“Often times, businesses will have a common name they go by… but the franchisee is something else, and that’s the name that’s on the licence and the one that comes up in the system,” stated Schultz. “We’ve been slowly working on an updated business license bylaw, because the last one was prepared in 2005. One of the things we want to put in there, is actually a requirement where, if you’re operating under a different name than you’re legally incorporated name, you have to include that on your license."
In some cases, businesses forget to notify the city when they change the name, address, or contact information of their establishment, which also causes issues.
In terms of small or home-based businesses, it's common practice for social media to be their main advertising platform. This means if the complainant can't provide a method of getting a hold of the owner, finding out where they operate can be difficult.
If a business is found to have no license, staff will reach out to the owner and remind them they're necessary when operating in Cold Lake.
A common concern for small business owners, particularly those who are home-based, is the cost.
For a home-based business license, the city charges $150, while commercial operators pay $75.
"Unfortunately, we don’t have the answer for that. We might have to go back over the old council minutes in order to see what the discussion was around for that decision,” Schultz said.
Mayor Craig Copeland wondered if their fees were too high.
“I think some of the home-based businesses aren’t coming in (for licenses) because of the marginal revenue that they’re actually making,” he noted.
Coun. Chris Vining noted home-based businesses often have less costs, referring to general overhead and the extra taxes of owning a storefront.
"I can see the advantage of bringing it down, because of the economic times, but the challenge from the business community that have bricks and mortar, might be that these residential business licenses are so cheap they can really just go anywhere and not have to invest anything aside from their residential properties. I can really see it going two ways in that conversation,” stated CAO Kevin Nagoya.
Council will bring the issue back to the table for further discussion at a future council meeting.
