A former Kamloops Chamber of Commerce President is excited to see city council finally put a proposal for an inter-community business licence (ICBL) to a vote.
Bob Dieno came up with the idea about six or seven years ago, and says it took off across the province, but not in Kamloops.
“Part of it being is that Kamloops doesn’t have cities right together,” Dieno said on NL Newsday. “Not only did the pilot project work in the Okanagan, it went down to the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island, and now it’s coming back. And now that everybody has done it, and it’s been such a huge success, Kamloops is finally getting on board with it.”
City councillors will be asked to give the bylaw three readings at their meeting today.
“It’s been an ongoing process by the Chamber to put this forward,” Dieno added. “Good for the Chamber for continuing to work on something we started years ago, good for the city to finally realize this is a really good thing to do for Kamloops and the communities around it.”
He says the city of Kamloops never implemented the idea because of fears of losing money.
“They just thought that they wouldn’t get the revenue, and people would go register in a different community that has a $100 business licence instead of a $250 one,”Dieno noted. “That was never the idea. You had to register in the city that you had your bricks and mortar building in. Once it was proven successful, I guess they got on board too.”
If approved, the licence will apply to Kamloops as well as Ashcroft, Cache Creek, Clinton, Barriere, Sun Peaks, Logan Lake, Merritt, Chase, Lillooet, Lytton, Clearwater, and Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc.
The city estimates there are currently 15 ICBL partnerships in the province, with 91 participating communities.