Changes to bylaw aimed at helping business thrive in Chestermere

City Council approved changes to the Chestermere Business License Bylaw in December that streamlines the licensing process and makes the city more attractive to small businesses.
“We want to be business friendly,” said Economic Development Manager for the City of Chestermere Jean-Marc Lacasse.
Some changes of note to the bylaw include, aligning of the bylaw with the land use bylaw and clarifying definitions in the bylaw and changes to how small and home based businesses are treated.
“We’d have certain definitions…that weren’t quite matching what we had in our land use bylaw, which created a challenge in interpretation,” he said.
The main definition that was clarified was the definition of what operating a business means.
The city chose to use the Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) definition.
“If the CRA thinks you’re running a business, that’s good enough for us,” said Lacasse.
These changes have been made in an attempt to promote the growth and movement of new small businesses to Chestermere.
These types of businesses are really important to promoting entrepreneurship and developing a strong commercial tax base in the city.
“Apple and Microsoft all those companies used to be home based businesses,” he said.
“We want to make sure we encourage entrepreneurship.
Somebody has an idea, wants to develop it, we don’t want them to really get caught up in…administrative details,” said Lacasse.
License fees for home businesses have been reduced from $150 to $100 for a major home based business and $50 for a minor one.
The difference between the two types is defined in the land use bylaw. Simply put major businesses are those that involve a larger portion of the residence and see clients frequently coming to the home.
An example of this would include having and operating a hair salon from a residence.
Minor business would include things like consulting businesses that only involve a computer work station at home.
Another change for the minor businesses is the need to only get the development permit once instead of renewing it every three years.
“So we’ve got a major cost cut for the minor home based business,” he said.
Lacasse believes that these changes will allow entrepreneurs to focus on their business.
They have also streamlined the process for vendors at open markets such as farmer’s markets.
“Under the old rule, every vendor at a farmer’s market needed to have a business license,” said Lacasse.
The new rule permits the market to get one business license that covers all the vendors at that market.
Lacasse hopes this will encourage entrepreneurs to test their products and ideas at these kinds of markets.
The city has made these changes based upon feedback they have been receiving from the business community over the last several years.
These changes are part of the city’s longer term business growth and retention strategy.
The goal is to encourage businesses that start at home in Chestermere to choose to purchase commercial space in the city as they grow.
To this end, Lacasse encourages businesses in Chestermere to participate in the online business directory.
The directory, found at http://www.chestermere.ca/BusinessDirectoryii.aspx, is a searchable database of all licensed businesses in Chestermere that have chosen to opt in.