Tradespeople will be licensed just like any other business here, if town council passes an amendment to its licensing bylaw at tonight’s regular meeting.
“If tradesmen come into town from out of town, we would require them to get a licence,” said Clerk Glenn Treftlin, adding this would apply to carpenters, masons, or any other form of tradesperson.
“Right now, our bylaw only applies to plumbers,” he noted.
Treftlin said not every tradesperson working here would need one. For instances, if they are hired by a contractor, that contractor pays for one licence.
There will be a standard fee across the board for the trade licences for the time being. “Only through experience can we identify if any particular trade cost more to licence than another,” Treftlin remarked.
He stressed the licensing was “not a tax,” but a means of keeping track of work going on in the town. The fee is more to recover the costs associated with licensing, such as paperwork and inspections.
Council will vote on a bylaw to amend the licensing bylaw with regard to the licensing of trades; as well as a bylaw to amend the user fees bylaw with regard to licensing fees.
Council tonight also is expected to resolve two items tabled at last Monday night’s regular meeting.
The first involves a reconsideration of the town’s representatives appointed to Rainycrest Home for the Aged’s board of management.
At the Dec. 13 meeting, Coun. Struchan Gilson moved that council should pick new representatives to the board because he felt the mayor was not representing the rest of council’s viewpoint on certain issues.
While the majority of council voted in favour of reconsidering the appointments of Mayor Onichuk and Coun. Neil Kabel, the matter was tabled until it could be made as to clear whether the mayor would, in fact, be the one to make the re-appointments.
The second involved the mayor’s appointments of councillors to the town’s four executive committees. Some councillors disagreed with being appointed to different committees, citing the mayor did not ask for their input before making the appointments.
While the mayor noted council was required to approve hs decisions, as per municipal bylaw, not everyone interpreted the wording of the bylaw the same way.
As such, the matter was tabled until the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing could be sought for input.
Fort Frances CAO Mark McCaig said this morning that he’s “hopeful” there will be some resolution to these matters.
“There’s been opinions sought regarding these. There’s no reason I can think of why there won’t be a resolution tonight,” he noted.
Tonight’s council meeting will start at 7 p.m. at the Civic Centre. It will be preceded by the committee of the whole, which will meet in-camera downstairs from 5-5:55 p.m., with the public session resuming at 6 p.m. in council chambers.
Other business at tonight’s council meeting will include:
•Mayor Onichuk announcing the three winners of the town’s recreation and leisure survey draw (those residents who turned in completed surveys by Nov. 30 were entered in a draw to win $250, $150, and $100 in Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce bucks);
•a request from the Rainy River Future Development Corp. regarding the town’s per capita contribution for 2005-06 (this contribution amounts to $58,205, based on the town’s population as stated in the 2004 Association of Municipalities Directory);
•oral reports on division activities from the executive committee chairpersons;
•a summary of the 2005 preliminary operating forecast, and an assessment results comparison between 2004 and 2005;
•a request from the Northern Action Group regarding four-way stops/traffic lights at four intersections in town; and
•a bylaw for approving the minutes of council from Dec. 1, 2003 to Dec. 6, 2004.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
