![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Rocky-Mountain-Icehouse-1024x556.png\")
\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\nAn Edmonton restaurant is contemplating not re-opening its patio this summer after the city announced new patio licence fees effective April 1.<\/p>\n
The owner of Rocky Mountain Icehouse on Jasper Avenue says having less seating capacity will have a significant impact on the business \u2013 especially with the Oilers once again heading into the playoffs.<\/p>\n
But Susan Forsey is struggling with how to manage the new cost.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn top of everything else, we can\u2019t afford another bill,\u201d Forsey told CityNews.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe if we can pull the money together, it just makes business sense, smart business sense if we can pull the money together. Not to have the year-round patio, but to at least have the summer patio.\u201d<\/p>\n
For years, Edmonton restaurants did not have to pay anything to use city sidewalks. But as of two weeks ago, a year-round patio on public space costs $6,900, while a large single-season patio is $3,700.<\/p>\n
The city says the new patio tax is \u201cneeded to offset property tax increases.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Hub on Whyte Avenue is among the businesses that will not re-open a patio this summer.<\/p>\n
Co-owner Peter Kleith tells CityNews while he understands the city\u2019s difficult financial position, he\u2019s disappointed in the significant fees they\u2019ve introduced, adding this will decrease vibrancy in areas like downtown and Whyte Ave.<\/p>\n
The Alberta Hospitality Association says the fees were \u201cunexpected and egregiously high.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just one more straw on a camel of an industry that\u2019s already working,\u201d said Mona Pinder, the association\u2019s executive director. \u201cThey\u2019re also not in line with other communities. And we just think that they\u2019re taking away from the vibrancy of the community, which is something that Edmonton has been trying to promote, and this just seems to go against that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last month, there was a motion calling city leaders to rethink fees, but council shot it down.<\/p>\n
The new patio fees were announced earlier this year. At the time, Edmonton\u2019s mayor said \u201cpatios are subsidized by taxpayers, and the fee change puts half of those costs back on the businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Forsey says Rocky Mountain Icehouse opened one of the first winter patios as part of the city\u2019s pilot project in 2019, adding new patio fees after the city was promoting year-round patios seems ironic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand that they do need to recoup money and they have to,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause now they don\u2019t have photo radar, that\u2019s a huge hit for them. And they\u2019re trying to survive from COVID as well. We all are. But when you add everything together, I just think it\u2019s detrimental to small businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\tTables and chairs outside Rocky Mountain Icehouse on Jasper Avenue, April 14, 2026. (CityNews) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Edmonton restaurant is contemplating not re-opening its patio this summer after the city announced new patio licence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":["post-606302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606302","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=606302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}