THE CORPORATION OF THE CITY OF PORT COQUITLAM C 0 U i

MEMORANDUM BEC 4 4 1978

Mayor and Council December 8th, 1978 -

Finance Committee

Re: Business Licence By-law

The Finance Committee spent several months during this past year reviewing
some changes in thé Business Licencing By-law. The objective was to try
and reduce the number of categories in the By-law. At the present time
there are 103 categories and these attempt to classify every conceivable
type of operation. The Committee felt that this was not entirely necessary
and that it could be narrowed down to a few pertinent categories. We

found for example that many of the licences are classified on the basis of
employees, however, there are seven different types of schedules each with
different fees but all using the number of employees as the basis of calculation.
In addition, there are numerous categories named in the schedule that

have similar licence fees.

The Committee has, therefore, attempted to eliminate many of these
unnecessary categories. The remaining licences that are not classified
will all come under one standard schedule based on the number of employees
engaged in the business. You will see that these two schedules are set
out in the attached sheets, "Schedule 1" being the list of specific
categories, and "Schedule 2" being the schedule that is applicable to

all other licences.

With regard to effect on revenue, the fees chargeable in "Schedule 1"
have in most cases been increased very slightly. Most of these increases
are due to rounding up to even dollar amounts and these increases are in
the 5% range. There are higher increases, however, for example, we have
a great number of plumbing, heating, electrical contractors, etc. in the
one and two employee category, they were previously paying $42 per year.
Under the new system they will. pay $50 per year. There will also be some
reductions, for example, banks were in a category on an employee basis
_where the highest licence fee payable was $1326 per year. The Committee
felt that this can not be justified as even in our largest business
establishment or industrial operations the licences run less than $500.
The overall effect of the change should be a slight increase in total revenue.

Although the schedule looks like a drastic change in procedure there is

in fact very little change as the bulk of our licences come under the retail
classification which is remaining the same under the new system. Therefore,
the bulk of the changes will affect licence categories that are not
frequently used.

The attached schedule is submitted for Council's consideration along
with the form of application for Business Licence which is slightly revised from the
previous form. If Council agrees with this approach to licencing we would
draft the necessary By-law Amendment to put the new fees into effect. We would
like to have this By-law in effect for January to coincide with our 1979 licence
billing.
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LDP/dv aE ee

City Administrato