BOWDEN - The Town of Bowden may soon eliminate its requirement for business licences for those who are deemed to be community residents. Non-residents would still have to pay those fees.
That idea came up for discussion during a council meeting last week.
A committee looking into revamping town bylaws is expected to provide council with a draft proposal for a meeting in January.
The idea to eliminate business licences came up as the committee, tasked with updating town bylaws, looked into its business bylaw. During that review, they looked at business bylaws from Olds and Innisfail, and from Whitecourt, which does not charge any business licence fees at all.
Coun. Sheila Church floated the idea on behalf of the committee. She said currently, revenue from business licences in Bowden only totals about $1,200 a year.
“We were kind of wondering if taking away the business licences would give us this much value in advertising,” Church said. “We could say that we're really open for business if there's no business licence fee here for residents.”
That said, Church stressed the town wants to be fair to people who live outside Bowden but still operate businesses in the community, so it's been suggested that the deal would extend to people who have a Bowden mailing address as well.
“We have so many people who are just outside Bowden who we consider (to be) Bowden people,” she said.
Church cited the example of a woman who operates a yoga business in Bowden.
“To charge her for a business licence, then she'd have to up her prices and she really is doing a lot of service,” she said.
Church said the problem with Whitecourt's no-business-tax program is that in her opinion, “they don't have really any records of what's going on. So we felt they should have to come in and apply for a business licence, even if it doesn't cost you anything.”
Coun. Paul Webb said when he was on Sundre town council, they eliminated business licence fees for businesses that had actual commercial premises within the town boundaries. However, people who operated businesses out of their homes still had to pay a fee for a business licence.
Church said those are two options Bowden could look at as well.
Coun. Wayne Milaney liked the proposal.
“A brilliant idea,” he said. “We should say ‘our doors are open, come on in.'”
Bowden chief administrative officer James Mason confirmed the Town of Whitecourt does not charge for business licences. However, he noted a hawker's and pedlar's licence fee is charged to people who he said, “come uninvited.”
The Whitecourt website confirms both those points.
“As far as the business licences, no, everybody's welcome; you just show up with whatever you've got,” Mason said.
“For them it's worked well. I mean, they're probably one of the more successful towns in Alberta when it comes to business. But (it's a) very rare sort of thing in Alberta.”
"A brilliant idea; we should say 'our doors are open, come on in.'"WAYNE MILANEYBOWDEN TOWN COUNCILLOR
