By Ryan Tumilty
Street vendors across the city could see dramatic changes to the bylaws that regulate them in the next year.
Bylaw changes could see licensing fees drop in some parts of the city and skyrocket in others leading to a fight for space in the downtown core.
The first of two issues is that vendors currently pay different fees in different parts of the city. Provincial law now says they need to be harmonized. The second issue is how the city is going to allocate space in the downtown core.
Vendors in the old City of Ottawa pay more than those in Vanier or Nepean. While harmonization might be good news for some vendors others in rural areas could see their rates jump from $150 to $1,800.
Jules Bouvier, a project officer in the bylaw department of the City of Ottawa, explains that the city’s hands are tied.
“The way the Municipal Act was written out, we didn’t have a choice,” says Bouvier.
While it may seem ludicrous to charge the same amount for hot dog vendors in the downtown core as those in Vanier or Nepean, the city is supposed to be regulating the activity wherever it occurs within Ottawa.
“Technically or mathematically it seems right to charge the same amount. In real life it doesn’t,” says Bouvier.
The issue of space is another problem. As the situation stands now spaces are allotted to vendors in the downtown core through a designated space program.
Provided the vendors pay their fees, they keep the space they had the previous year.
This guarantees vendors a space of their own and reduces the number of vendors competing with fixed premise businesses.
Currently, when vendors choose not to renew their spaces, the city removes them from the list.
The city was going to create a bidding process for the spaces starting in May 2006.
With the changes to licensing fees, the city is now reviewing its plans for the designated space program as well.
Terry Scanlon has had his hot dog stand on the corner of Bank Street and Laurier Avenue for 21 years and that is where he wants to stay.
In a bidding process, Scanlon expects the cost of his space, which is currently $1,200, to jump if the city goes ahead with the tendering process.
“Right now there are people who would pay four times that amount for this space,” says Scanlon.
Scanlon says the customer base he has built and his hard work should allow him to keep the space he has.
“If you have worked for it and kept the customers coming back you deserve to keep it,” says Scanlon.
If changes have to be made, Scanlon hopes the city stays with its initial plans for a tendering process.
He is more concerned that, by adopting harmonized fees, the city will give up on designated spaces altogether and too many vendors will come downtown.
Bouvier says, while unlikely, this is one of the possibilities the city is currently considering. He says the city might keep the plan for the tendering process, it might prohibit vending altogether, it might bring in a lottery, or it might allow vendors everywhere.
Gerry Lepage, executive director of the Bank Street Business Improvement Area does not want a return to a free-for-all on downtown streets.
Lepage estimates that before the designated space program, when over 200 vendors operated downtown, they took away a lot of revenue from businesses
“At its zenith it was about $2 million a year,” says Lepage.
He wants to see higher licensing fees downtown because it will make vendors more competitive with local businesses that have to pay rent and property taxes.
The city’s bylaw office has been working to present recommendations for the harmonization of all kinds of fees – everything from outdoor concerts to rickshaws.
They have decided to pull back slightly and, instead, present the fees in stages to make it easier on council and members of the public who might want to bring their concerns to council debates.
“We were ambitious initially, but have now decided to pull back,” says Susan Jones, the director of bylaw services.
Under provincial law, the city has until the end of this year to harmonize all fees across the city.