The City of Vancouver has increased its event permit fees earlier in April for the ongoing year, some by as much as 900 per cent.<\/p>\n
For a medium complexity event, this could mean an increase from $250 up to $2,500.<\/p>\n
While city hall justifies the price jump with increased overall costs, event organizers are worried about their future.<\/p>\n
They say that the permit fee increases will hurt small business owners, such as vendors who often fill event spaces with their booths.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fee increases have very negatively impacted our organization. We started this organization to support small business owners and local small businesses. And this change in permit fees, this rise in permit fees is very much harming small businesses,\u201d Kristina Cressman told 1130 NewsRadio.<\/p>\n
Cressman is the owner and founder of the Vintage and Handmade Society (VHS) of Vancouver, which has been hosting events to connect local small businesses with access to vendor spaces, predominantly in downtown Vancouver, such as the Summer Market Series.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only is it harming them, but it, of course, is harming us to be able to provide these services to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
She adds that the fees have forced them to reduce the number of events they host and pass on some of the costs to their vendors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I foresee is just way fewer events happening. There used to be a time when it was basically just farmers\u2019 markets and VHS markets doing activities, and I have watched the community grow, and so many other people started putting on markets. The opportunity became feasible for so many different organizers, and then in a snap, it\u2019s gone,\u201d Cressman said.<\/p>\n
She explains that her organization has already implemented actions to lessen the burden for vendors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a retail store with some local makers and some vintage, so that\u2019s called VCR,\u201d Cressman said.<\/p>\n
Downtown Vancouver spaces more expensive <\/p>\n
However, with a lack of funding, Cressman says that they have had to pass on some of that cost to their vendors.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut even then, with the rise in rent and lease fees, it is such a struggle to be a small business right now, especially a woman-owned minority business in Vancouver. So, I don\u2019t know where the future holds for us, and it\u2019s becoming harder and harder to stay positive, but I\u2019m definitely trying.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement, the City of Vancouver says that the permit fee increases are in part to compensate for changes to businesses and residents that would create an undue burden with an event happening in their neighbourhood.<\/p>\n
The city adds the fee is even higher for three event spaces in Vancouver downtown, 800 Robson, \u0161x????n?q Xwtl\u2019e7e?nk? Square and 1800 Davie Street.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor these three locations, fees range\u00a0from $1,000 to $1,500 depending on\u00a0whether it is\u00a0low\u00a0or\u00a0peak season,\u201d the city said in a written statement.<\/p>\n
The fee increase applies to commercial markets and is waived for cultural or community events and farmers\u2019 markets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The City of Vancouver has increased its event permit fees earlier in April for the ongoing year, some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-589225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}