At a meeting hosted by the Economic Development Committee (EDC) on Tuesday evening, Edward Wachtman and Sheree Johnson told more than sixty owners of local businesses that they contribute to the very unique story of Bowen Island. Their conversation was followed up by one led by municipal councillor Maureen Nicholson, who told the group that Bowen is also unique in the fact that we are one of the few communities that does not have a system of business licensing.
“According to the Ministry of Community, Sports and Cultural Development, there are 162 communities in British Columbia an essentially all of them require business licenses,” Nicholson told the audience. “So when our Chief Administrative Officer goes to a conference with all other chief administrative officer and they ask you do business licensing on Bowen, she says, we don’t. And they look at her and say what do you mean, you don’t?”
She added that despite not having such a system, the Land Use Bylaw states all business and home occupations “shall have a valid business license prior to commencement.”
One business owner asked Nicholson what the potential benefits of a business license might be, and she pointed to several: more quantative data is helpful in describing your business community, there are grants that you can not even apply for if you don’t have a business license-system and this kind of data, and a business licensing system could help to promote local businesses.
Nicholson shifted the conversation back to the business owners asking what other potential advantages could come about through a business licensing system, and what makes them nervous about such a system.
Carrie Llyod, owner of Copper Kettle Fine Foods, argued for such a system saying it lends legitimacy to local businesses and could provide a baseline for operating on Bowen.
Jayeson Hendrysan, owner of Hempcrete Natural Building Ltd. expressed reservations about such a system.
“We need to sort out what the advantages of a system like this would be, then figure out how to get them with Bowen-intelligence,” he said. “I worry that once we start business licensing on Bowen there would be no going back.”
Hendrysan went on to state concerns about bureaucracy, which were echoed by others in the room who opposed the idea.
The Economic Development Committee will be gathering these and other comments on the creation of a business license system on Bowen, and draft a report to council on potential next steps in the spring of 2017.
