'Death by a thousand cuts': Vancouver business community urges slashing of red tape

Vancouver voters head to the polls in three weeks to decide who’ll run city hall for the next four years, and small business owners are rallying to highlight issues with red tape and bureaucracy that are threatening their businesses and livelihoods.

Public safety, the toxic drug crisis and the role of police in dealing with those issues have understandably garnered the most headlines in the months leading to the municipal election, but local entrepreneurs are dealing with those while also struggling to open, run and expand their companies. 

Loco BC, which researches and advocates on behalf of small businesses, is looking for candidates to turn their attention to the bread-and-butter issues that are affecting individuals and families who’ve often poured their life’s savings into business ventures that struggle to survive through Vancouver’s sometimes years-long permitting process. 

“It’s death by a thousand cuts — all these small things like cost of licensing, the length of time, the misinformation that they get,” said executive director Amy Robinson. “Things need to change rapidly and I think we need to take the spirit of how we wanted to help small, local businesses during COVID-19 and make that a permanent part of the process.”

She said few people are aware, even after speaking with city staff, that a Commercial Renovation Centre is available to help guide them through the process, and it can easily take six weeks just for a simple renovation permit to wind its way through the byzantine system, with many aspects of the process totally opaque to applicants.

SMALL BUSINESSPEOPLE SPEAK UP

Some 98 per cent of businesses in B.C. are considered small, which means they have 50 employees or fewer, but many of Vancouver’s businesses are “micro," with fewer than five.

Emma Smith is the sole owner of Zimt Chocolate, and has a handful of employees. She had to navigate the permitting process of her vegan confectionary on her own, which meant providing detailed schematics of where each light fixture would be, among other details she found baffling.

“It took about six months for us to be able to move in and to be honest, I'm still confused as to whether or not we were allowed to move in at that point because I got an approval notice eight months after,” she said. “Whenever I went to the permitting office with plans there was often conflicting information provided to me as to what changes needed to happen.”

When it comes to kombucha brewers Hoochy Booch, the owners spent months looking for a space to expand their brewing and canning facilities, then waited another six months for permits.

“I feel like we're actually blessed because we know small businesses who are still waiting and they've been waiting 18 months, and they're paying rent on that place,” said co-owner William Moore. “There are (general contractors) who'll tell you one thing, and then the city will tell them another thing because they thought this thing worked at another place but it's not going to work here because of some other kind of details that we don't understand.”

He described opening or expanding a business in Vancouver as “basically walking blind into a six-figure deal” in terms of expense and clarity of process.

MAYORAL CANDIDATES MAKING VARIOUS PROMISES

Ken Sim, who’s running for mayor on a business background as co-founder of Nurse Next Door and Rosemary Rocksalt bagelry, is leading the ABC Vancouver party with a pledge to fast-track business licences within three weeks. 

Progress Vancouver, with Mark Marrisen as the mayoral candidate, is promising to “launch a comprehensive review of all regulations and fees to identify unnecessary or overly burdensome ones,” while Colleen Hardwick and the TEAM slate are looking at zoning, streamlined permits, and “innovation hubs.”

For his part, the incumbent mayor is pointing out that the city bureaucracy successfully established and fast-tracked hundreds of patio permits in the early days of the pandemic when the hospitality industry asked for help and that they’ve been making other improvements. 

“We used COVID-19 as an opportunity to automate many of our processes, so many of the licences you’d apply for online are now automated and you don’t go to city hall to do that and after we struck a task force led by our city manager,” said Kennedy Stewart when asked about the issues by CTV News. “His latest report shows a lot of improvement despite COVID and despite, really, years of inaction by past councils.”

Robinson, whose group does not endorse any candidates or parties, acknowledges that statement is accurate.

“Kudos to the city, they have made some changes,” she said, while insisting more is needed. “They’re really listening, I know these things take time.”