After giving the proposed business licensing bylaw first reading back in December, town council will vote to adopt it at its next regular meeting here Monday night (March 27).
And at least one person who’s planning to be there to have some questions answered regarding the proposed bylaw is local Chamber of Commerce president Gary Rogozinski.
Rogozinski noted Friday that the Chamber sent out a call for input on the bylaw to local businesses back in February, and he’ll be on hand for Monday night’s meeting to relay those opinions.
“We really appreciated the town giving us the time to let the businesses look at [the draft of the bylaw] and voice some concerns,” he said.
“I got quite a bit of feedback from the businesses,” added Rogozinski. “We even called some of the businesses that we wanted direct input from.
“I talked to the taxi owner, some of the tow truck businesses, some of the contractors that did plumbing and construction work like house-building,” he remarked.
“We got some really good input.”
Rogozinski said one of the biggest changes with the proposed bylaw is the town’s clampdown on business licences, with the intention to ensure all businesses—both local and from out of town—have them.
“One of the things is [a business licence] is an additional cost. And how is it going to enforced?” wondered Rogozinski.
“If everybody in town is required to have a business licence, and if you wanted to come in to work in town, how is the town going to ensure that those businesses from the outside, like from Winnipeg and Thunder Bay, have their business licence?
“Tow truck drivers who come in from International Falls, or Thunder Bay or Winnipeg—according to the bylaw, they have to have a business licence to come into town to do that kind of work.
“How’s that going to be enforced?
“Those are some of the concerns we haven’t got real good answers for yet, and I hope that I do get some answers,” said Rogozinski.
“Talking to local businesses, I know some got their business licence religiously, some didn’t bother, and the town never bothered to follow up on it. It was hit and miss.
“If you got one, you got one. If you didn’t, it didn’t matter. Now they’re going to enforce it more.
Rogozinski said the major questions voiced by local businesses seem to be “Why is this bylaw revision being pursued in the first place, and is it just a money grab or an attempt to protect some town businesses from outside competition?”
Town clerk Glenn Treftlin said Monday the purpose of the changes to the business licensing bylaw is both to revise the way the town regulates businesses, as well as clean up any regulations that are outdated or don’t apply to the local community.
“The intent of the bylaw is to primarily give us a means of providing the consumer some sort of protection,” Treftlin noted.
“So if you have tradespeople coming in wanting to do business in the trade they purport to be qualified in, this is our opportunity to say, ‘Okay, you demonstrate to us that you do have the qualifications.’
“If we don’t have a licence requirement, they don’t even have to give us a call,” Treftlin noted.
“So this is really the step we have to ensure that they’re letting us know they’re here to do business in our town and interact directly with the consumer.
“This is our opportunity then to look at that and say what’s in the best interest of our consumers,” he added. “The guy should have the qualifications that he says he has, and this is our way of ensuring that he does.”
Treftlin noted that while some part of the bylaw are still the same (such as the section stating all businesses will have to get licences on an annual basis), the revised version is different from the one first read by council in December as the Planning and Development executive committee made recommendations over the past few months.
For instance, the trades section likely will see the “master” trade requirements for trades like plumber or drain-layer cut out of the final draft after discussions among the Planning and Development executive committee found those things aren’t really applicable to a small town.
And while the first draft also included detailed sections on parking and lodging houses, those sections also likely will be eliminated from the bylaw before it goes to council on Monday night.
The public is invited to attend this meeting to make written or oral presentations either in support of or against the proposal.
For more information, contact Treftlin at 274-5323 ext. 236.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
