Council Favours Rescinding Rental Business License Bylaw
Prince George, B.C. – Those who have already paid a business license fee for a residential rental property may get a refund from City Hall.
Council, in a 5-4 split has opted to rescind the rental property license and refund the dollars already collected.
Rescinding the bylaw has been given first two readings. There are still two readings to go before the move is made official.
The rescinding was supported by Councilors Frank Everitt, Lyn Hall, Brian Skakun, Murry Krause and Garth Frizzell. Those who voted against rescinding the bylaw were Councilors Cameron Stolz, Dave Wilbur, Albert Koehler and the Mayor voted against it. Mayor Green said she thought rescinding the bylaw was a "regressive reactionary move".
The business license was initially put in place to ensure the City had some recourse to make sure the living conditions in rental units met the business license standards.
If a premise is found to be below the standards, the rental unit would be shut down.
Although the licensing is aimed at "making a safer community" Councillor Brian Skakun says this licensing plan is just a money grab. He noted that in larger apartment blocks with numerous units, not all units would be inspected and there is nothing to address the issue of when the tenant is responsible for the unsafe or unsanitary conditions.
The City has the ability to inspect a unit under other bylaws, but cannot stop a landlord from continuing to rent the property. This bylaw would give the City the ability to do just that.
But as Councillor Hall pointed out, with a license or not, bylaw services will only be conducting inspections when responding to complaints.
Councillor Frank Everitt is the one who brought this item back before Council. Through his questions it became clear the City will not be able to provide a license to an illegal suite so those suites could not be shut down as a result of any violation under this licensing bylaw. "Any amount of money we ask people to pay, is passed on" He says people are not renting properties out of the goodness of their heart.
Councillor Murry Krause says he doesn't think this business license will get at what was intended, and that is unsafe accommodations. Illegal suite owners will not likely apply for a license, so they will not be under that umbrella. He also asked how much will the City end up paying in legal fees to ensure bad landlords are not allowed to continue renting?.
"The license process won't provide us with any greater tool than what we have today" says Councillor Hall, who says whether or not there is a business license, the concerns will only be addressed if a complaint is made. He says this business license is "unenforceable".
Councillor Dave Wilbur called on his Council colleagues to "show some courage" and support a business license. But Councilors argued the real courage is to rescind a bad bylaw that was onerous.
Comments
A terrible bylaw and an obvious money grab from council members desperate to show some benefit from the complete was of money core review.
Waste of money
“regressive reactionary move” Really Ms. Geene?
That’s what I thought of the whole bylaw in the first place!
Same as the rainwater runoff tax.
So 5 get re-elected 4 don’t ! That was easy.
Of all the years I have lived in PG this has to be the most wishy washy council we have had.
Time to trade them all in on new blood.
Once again Stoltz/Green/Koehler/Wilbur tried to put through a convoluted bylaw that was for all intents and purposes unenforceable, and was nothing more than a cash grab.
Stoltz tried to imply that somehow a business license would allow bylaw enforcement officers to enter peoples premises to ensure that they were in compliance. Problem is this would only apply to people who actually bought a business license. For those who operate illegal suites, they of course would not apply for a license, and would not be subject to the same enforcement that legal suites would face.
Furthermore Stoltz knows full well that you cannot get a business license for an illegal suite, however he pretends that they would be illegal because they didn’t have a license, rather than admit that they are illegal because they do not comply with the building code.
This whole issue like other issues that were brought forward and supported by the Fab Four, cost us nothing but time, effort, and money.
Once again the Fab Four have given us a reason to not vote for them.
Hall, Everitt, Frizzel, Krause, and Skakun, seem to have a much better grasp of the overall wants, and needs of this City.
Was this business license fee for a residential rental property an idea suggested in the expensive KPMG Core Review as a new source of money – for the city which never seems to be able to restrain itself to keeping tax plus fee increases within the official Canadian inflation index?
Excellent. Note made on who voted for and against.
Funny how the city does not mention the trailer parks.
How many mobile homes are rented out by park owners than never go by any inspections. Many of these trailers are junkards and not fit to live in.
Why does the city not take their proper ownership or seize the trailers that they legally own for unpaid taxes?
The city will not remove them and the park owners hands are tied as there are many vacant trailers with squatters.
This city turns a blind eye on things they are responsible for.
People should be demanding interest from the city for holding their money hostage.
What a fricking waste……OMG…..will this council ever do anything right for this city. I will go back to playing WOW,,,,it makes more sence to me…(shaking my head for ever choosing to live here).
The next issue that needs to be axed is the rain tax. If the city is dealing with aged and failing storm sewer infrastructure, then just say that. If a small utility increase is needed to replace failing systems, the people of Prince George will understand that. But then there needs to be accountability for the dollars collected, and evidence the dollars are being spent on repairs and replacement. Not just going into the City’s general revenue fund. No BS, just the truth. Not a difficult concept.
Let’s go PG and ask for truth at City Hall and axe the Rain Tax.
Checking for who I vote for next election….Frank Everett, did he become a slent chegue casher,(shameful for the unions in the area) oh wait…there is no one to vote for civic happiness……walk into the welfare office and there is your new city council. (hey these guys are pretty smart). I would vote for some of them…..If these guys in council ever visited the roots of this city, and actually understood the dynamics of this city, and forsee its future. There is a secret to the madness
I wonder how long George St. will remain burned up…..This will not look good in 2015.
5 dummies !
Oh, the faux outrage! Maybe we’ll get 30% voter turnout this time around.
It takes political courage to admit when one is wrong and reversing course as a result of drilling down on the policy. They showed intelligence in their reasoning.
Green on the other hand with her “regressive reactionary move” comment… does she even know what she is talking about? This was a regressive tax much like the whole slate of her tax policy. Was she calling the rest of council regressive reactionaries for backing away from her regressive tax policy, or was this an attempt to call them backwards for not staying on her policy agenda? A very unclear and loose use of language that was political at best.
I like the comment by guesswhat on trailer courts. The city should do a lot more to clean up the ones we have. Maybe the only one in town that is maintained is the Sintch park south of town and Aberdeen.
As with Everitt and the other 4 they reviewed the info from staff, talk with the people effected and made the right call. One tax grab down the drain. As for the rain tax will never see the light of day in 2015.
what a waste of time, the city does not enforce the bylaws for parking or anything else, let alone this one. I agree with willyjès comment.
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