Now, the latest of Vancouver’s efforts to modernize and streamline operations has city hall taking aim at its half-century-old business-licence bylaw. Staff want to cut the number of licence types from 570 down to 88, which will mean psychics and fortunetellers would no longer have their own classifications.
All businesses operating in the city need to obtain a municipal licence, which is an important function of city hall. Last year, the City of Vancouver issued almost 53,000 business licences, generating $20.6 million in licence fee revenue.Article content But Vancouver’s Licence Bylaw, enacted in 1969, includes antiquated language and has “become overly unwieldy from years of incremental updates,” says a“The large number of licence types, which is significantly more than other cities in British Columbia and Canada, creates confusion for local businesses, complicates economic data analysis, and does not address new and emerging business types.”
For example, the current bylaw has one classification for “plumber,” another for “plumber and gas contractor,” a third for “plumber and sprinkler contractor,” a fourth for “plumber, sprinkler and gas contractor,” a fifth classification for “sprinkler contractor,” a sixth for “gas contractor,” and a seventh, separate classification for “gas and sprinkler contractor.”