Business licensing in Whitecourt? It’s a possibility

The Town of Whitecourt is looking into the possibility of having business licenses in the community. At a recent Policies and Priorities Committee meeting, Economic Development Officer Rhonda Hough explained why the move could be beneficial and provided some data from other municipalities that have the practice implemented already.

Some research done through the Economic Development Committee (EDC) earlier in 2022 was brought forward in the meeting. “The committee has been looking through some vague research of what other municipalities are doing and the costs of business licensing. Once they dissected the information and looked at it, the benefits were clear for us, as well as some of the challenges we would need to work through,” explained Hough.

A business satisfaction survey, which included questions on business licensing, gave some insight though only a small number took part. “There were only 32 businesses that completed it, but 52 percent were interested in moving forward with business licensing, and thirteen percent wanted more information,” said Hough. The remaining thirty-five percent didn’t want to move forward with licensing.

Hough explained that those who wanted more information were aware of what the licenses were but wanted to understand more of the benefits. “I think we need to do more engagement. They (the EDC) want to explore synergies and partnerships with the Whitecourt Chamber if there are opportunities to partner on different ideas.”

Staying engaged with the business community will be a big part of going forward. “We want to educate on what the benefits are and where business licensing could benefit businesses too, not just a municipality with the data and information collected.”

Hough explained that the EDC recommended a phased approach. Phase one would take place through 2023 and involve engagement and education with the business community. Over the next year, the committee would research best practices, develop guidelines, and identify other resources needed. At the end of 2023, the committee would provide Council with an update and recommendations on how they think things should proceed. “That will give Council an opportunity to look at the implementation plan, costing, a complete outline, and a strategy to implement the program.”

Phase two would be about developing the Business Licensing Bylaw and the implementation plan, should there be buy-in from the business community and if Council is in favour of moving forward. Phase three would see the licensing implementation, tentatively set for January 1, 2025. “It is long term to get it implemented. There’s a lot of information we have to get out,” said Hough.

The survey they did in 2022 showed Administration that they lack information from the business community and that without a way to get regular updates, it’s challenging to have the best information. If a licensing program were in place, businesses would need to check in yearly and update their information, keeping both sides informed of changes, be it ownership, phone numbers or location.

One of the pieces to the puzzle is what to charge businesses. In the information gathering done by the EDC, they looked into eleven municipalities with licensing in place. The communities were Beaumont, Blackfalds, Brooks, Camrose, Canmore, Cold Lake, High River, Lloydminster, Morinville, Olds, and Wetaskiwin. Most of the municipalities have had licensing in place for decades. Beaumont was the most recent to implement the change, doing so in 2019. Most had separate pricing for resident and non-resident businesses, bouncing from $100 to $150 for a resident business and $150 to $600 for a non-resident business. Notes provided by the municipalities advised keeping things as straightforward as possible.

Councillor Lapointe noted that since Beaumont was the most recent municipality on the list to implement the licensing, it would be interesting to hear more about their experience. Councillor Tara Baker asked if the licensing would be for home-based businesses too. Hough said that those details would be evaluated in their research through 2023.

“That’s why we are doing the three-phase plan to develop a good plan. The idea from the EDC is to keep it at a minimal fee to cover the resources to implement the program and get our data updated because the data we are missing is more than just for Economic Development.” She explained that having detailed information from the local business community helps attract and retain businesses.

“When large businesses are coming in, or there’s a project coming through town, we would then have that list of businesses to share when they ask for local businesses for procurement opportunities,” said Hough. She said that not only is the data collection a benefit to the Economic Development department for building their programs but that it goes beyond that too.

“It’s also about fire and emergency management because although we have some contacts, they are not all updated. There’s some work we need to do there. Once we go through this in 2023, I think we will be able to bring some of that information back based on how we are going to strategically plan it and whether we go home-based or storefront or businesses from out of the region.” More updates on the proposed business licensing will be presented to Council towards the end of 2023.