If you've ever been burned by a fly-by-night contractor in Elliot Lake, help may by on the way from City Hall to get a handle on local trades, as early as next year.
Elliot Lake Councillor Chris Patrie told his fellow members of Elliot Lake City Council Monday night that he was pleased that the concept of comprehensive business licensing for Elliot Lake finally made it to the Council table.
It happened on an initiative from the city's Economic Development Advisory Committee.
Councillor Patrie said he always wanted the subject to come up during his terms on City Council. He noted, "It may cost the taxpayers money. But I think that the fees involved for businesses that want to operate legally and operate with a business license will pay for that costing, or the fines by the bylaw department for anybody not following the business license acumen will assist in covering the cost of that as well, will assist in covering the costs involved."
Patrie continued, "I think it's imperative to make sure that everybody in our municipality is protected from businesses that don't operate legally."
He went on, "We want to make sure that our constituents are served with people that have the proper insurance, proper training, proper WSIB and aren't working under the table in our municipality."
Councillor Sandy Finamore wondered if it the concept should be applied to the Bylaw and Planing department. She added, "I'm just curious about processes. Should it be referred to Bylaw and Planning, since they look after licenses?"
Mayor Dan Marchisella said, "I have done a bit of investigating myself with other municipalities that do have licensing. They have online licensing. The annual fee is $200 and they have a full directory of services and businesses that are covered by this." He continued, "If this is approved by Council, that's the same as giving direction to staff asking for their guidance as to how this is going to roll out."
Elliot Lake CAO Daniel Gagnon told Council that that getting information on setting up a business licensing system might be a good use of forward mobilization funds.
Gagnon added, "I think it is a far greater undertaking than council might think it is. We might want to carry out a feasibility study. So this is going to involve a lot of resources to implement and police."
He told Council, "I also heard around the committee table that fees should be modest, and there should be cost recovery. But these two are usually mutually exclusive, so we're going to need a consultant to come up with best practices and find out what they're doing in other jurisdictions."
Councillor Tom Turner noted, "I'm sure most of us would be happy if the cost is revenue neutral. The intent is to allow us to identify who's in business, to protect consumers in the city and to allow for a our by law enforcement to bring a halt into any miscreants, any ripoff artists, or come by nighters."
Turner continued, "There's a multitude of good examples in municipalities around the province and the country where they've been very successful with it. And I suspect from the people I've talked to, the majority of businesses support this idea."
"They're tired of under the table operations when they have to pay for stores, heating, hydro, insurance, WSIB. It's time to create a fair playground," Turner observed.
Councilor Luc Cyr said, "I just want to ensure that this is fair to business and is not excessively onerous to our own business people and those who are planning to go into business here"
He continued, "I'd like the heavier cost by attributed to the penalty side so that people aren't willing to enrol into the affair to see a fair and honest system would help pay for it."
Council voted to send the committee recommendation on setting up a comprehensive business licensing system to staff for their direction on future implementation.