As early as this spring, Lower Mainland construction trades workers and other mobile businesses could be allowed to do business in Vancouver, Richmond and Surrey under a single business licence.
The Vancouver Economic Commission (VEC), in conjunction with business groups in Richmond and Surrey, is laying the groundwork for a pilot program to test out whether a mobile business licence could be successful for businesses and local municipalities.
The pilot program has yet to be finalized and get council approval in the three municipalities; however, Lee Malleau, the VEC’s CEO, said the hope is to see the new licences launched by May.
Malleau said the lack of a single licence that can be used in multiple municipalities in the Lower Mainland has created onerous red tape for businesses, such as construction trades, which sell products or services in more than one municipality.
“They have to go to each different municipality and get a business licence, and what ends up happening, inevitably, is that there’s a lack of compliance and businesses just don’t do it.”
But beyond tackling compliance problems, Malleau said, the hope is that a regional licence would boost business for Lower Mainland companies.
“The bigger issue really is: ‘How do we streamline the process for businesses so that it can be easier for them, so that they can focus on running their businesses effectively and doing what they’re good at and continue to generate economic prosperity for all of the region?’”
Anita Huberman, CEO of the Surrey Board of Trade and a key advocate of the licences, called the Lower Mainland’s current business licensing requirements as “red tape of the worst kind.”
She said her members are selling their products and services throughout all 16 local municipalities.
The push for mobile business licences isn’t new in the Lower Mainland, but has gained momentum in the past 18 months thanks to a co-ordinated push from local chambers of commerce and boards of trade.
John Winter, president and CEO of the BC Chamber of Commerce, noted that municipalities in the Greater Victoria area have had mobile business licences for approximately a decade.
“So there’s been lots of experience; it’s just been that there hasn’t been anybody to drive the concept,” he said. “It’s like dealing with Balkan states; just because you get Abbotsford onside doesn’t mean you’ve got Mission onside.”
Malleau said a key hurdle to implementing mobile licences is a perception that municipalities will sacrifice revenue.
But she said the research disproves and is among the key findings the VEC and its partners have been assembling to present to municipal councils in the coming weeks.
“Other [case studies] have demonstrated that revenues have gone up because compliance has gone up,” she said.
She noted that while Vancouver, Richmond and Surrey are thus far slated to be involved in the pilot project, the hope is that the concept will ultimately spread to the whole Lower Mainland.
“What we’re thinking of is if some of the larger municipalities take the lead, set up a pilot and demonstrate that this can be very effective, ideally what will happen is that other municipalities will get involved.” •
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