The Town of Crossfield is following in the footsteps of two of its northern neighbours, opting to waive or refund business license fees for 2021.
Town council discussed the topic at the Feb. 2 regular meeting. The meeting came two weeks after the municipal councils of Olds and Carstairs opted to waive business license renewal fees for 2021, due to the continued economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It doesn’t really impact the bottom line but is a gesture, at least,” Mayor Jo Tennant said.
According to Chief Administrative Officer Ken Bosman, the Town of Crossfield’s business license renewal fee is $51 a year. A staff report presented to council stated the municipality's revenue from business licenses amounted to $11,300 in 2020, $13,070 in 2019 and $13,651 in 2018. The Town was anticipating about $12,500 in business license revenue for 2021, according to the report, due to an uptick in construction projects this year.
Bosman said the municipality had already collected about $2,000 worth of business license renewal fees for 2021, as of Feb. 4. He said there would need to be considerable staff time devoted to refunding businesses that had already paid the fee.
“There’s a lot of bureaucracy associated with stopping the train and then reversing the train,” he said. “This would have been dramatically cleaner if we had said in November, we were cancelling it for next year.”
There are other ways the Town could help companies weather the pandemic, according to Bosman, such as investing money in a better Crossfield business directory or reducing business’ property taxes. He brought up the success of Crossfield’s business passport program, which the Town implemented in 2020 to incentive residents to shop locally while Railway Street underwent below-ground utility upgrades.
“Last year, during the downtown construction, we had the business passport, where people collected receipts and came in and we gave away [prizes] and all kinds of swag,” he said. “We had a surprisingly good participation.”
Another idea Bosman suggested would be to create a form of local currency that could only be spent in Crossfield. Similar initiatives have been successful in both Irricana and Beiseker.
“We would effectively generate our own currency and then distribute it to our citizens, perhaps with a small subsidy where you could buy 100 Crossfield dollars for $80, or some other number,” he said.
However, most councillors seemed more in favour of waiving the $51 business license fee or refunding it to license holders that had already paid. Coun. Justin Gustafson and Deputy Mayor Glenn Price said it would be a gesture of goodwill from the Town.
Tennant said not every local business would benefit from the incentives Bosman mentioned, as those would be primarily geared to brick-and-mortar storefronts. While she said those ideas should still be explored, waiving the business licence fees would be a more universal way to support Crossfield’s businesses.
“There are businesses that don’t have walk-in customers,” she said. “Those businesses are missed, and it doesn’t matter how you try to promote them. The business license covers everybody and it doesn’t matter if you’re customer-based or not.”
Following the discussion, Tennant moved for council to approve waiving or refunding Crossfield business license fees for 2021. The motion passed 3-1, with Coun. Kim Harris providing the sole vote in opposition.
“Although it’s a great gesture, I don’t know if $51 is going to make a big difference,” Harris said, adding she would rather see administration “think outside the box,” such as offering Crossfield’s businesses a marketing or advertising campaign.
Scott Strasser, AirdrieToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @scottstrasser19
