Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) staff are looking into the implications of introducing business licences to the rural areas of the Sunshine Coast.
Staff were directed to look into the option at an Oct. 22 corporate and administrative services committee meeting after Roberts Creek director Andreas Tize raised the topic through a notice of motion.
“We’re kind of flying in the dark,” Tize told Coast Reporter in a follow-up interview. Without business licences the regional district can’t keep track of which businesses are operating in rural areas, he said, nor on impacts on infrastructure such as roads and garbage. Meanwhile, areas such as Elphinstone are becoming more densely populated and nudge up against municipalities.
Tize mentioned two instances in particular where business licences may be useful: the development of “micro cannabis facilities” in rural areas, which operate similar to microbreweries, and short-term rentals.
Licences would allow the SCRD to keep track of operations and to be “fair to those businesses that are paying commercial property taxes,” said Tize.
On top of transparency, the motion presented Oct. 22 said licences could provide opportunities to collect statistics and ensure bylaw compliance.
The SCRD has also taken the idea to the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM).
At its September convention, UBCM endorsed an SCRD motion urging the municipal affairs ministry to look at amending the Local Government Act so that regional districts could provide business licences, “to ensure fair and equal access for all local governments” that want to use business licences as a tool to ensure bylaws are followed.
“We asked for it in a UBCM motion and with the minister meeting, they sounded like they were receptive to the idea and now it’s time to discuss what we asked for,” said Tize at the Oct. 22 meeting.
Currently, only municipalities have the authority to issue licences, while regional districts are given the power on a case-by-case basis. Only the Central Okanagan Regional District has business licensing authority – which was granted in 1996, according to a UBCM resolutions committee.
On the Sunshine Coast, the Town of Gibsons, the District of Sechelt and the Sechelt Indian Government District issue them for a fee. They come with requirements for building inspections, fire inspections and in some cases approval from Vancouver Coastal Health.
SCRD chief administrative officer Dean McKinley said he planned to speak on Oct. 28 with the CAOs of Central Okanagan and the Regional District of East Kootenay, which is also looking at the option. “There’s not a lot of research out there. The vast majority of regional districts have not pursued this,” he said.
McKinley’s report is expected within the next two months.
