Commercial dog walkers are fuming after the District of West Vancouver increased its business permit fees causing some rates to almost double.
The rise in fees, some by as much as 93 per cent, has left some company owners scratching their heads. The changes came after the Fees and Charges Bylaw was updated at a Sept. 30 council meeting, but some company owners have only just recently been aware of the increase.
"We had heard that there was a 20 per cent increase coming for this year, which would have been fine I guess, but these increases for the non-West Vancouver companies, nobody knew about them until the bills arrived," said Barry Rueger, owner of Four Legs Good Canine Services about the invoice he received mid-December.
"It's been a year when a lot of our clients are feeling the economic pinch and that translates down into we're not an essential service for most people, we're sort of somewhat of a luxury. It hurts us, and this is just one added nail in the coffin."
Donna Powers, district spokeswoman, said the increases were for all fees and permits from oil tank permits for the fire department to business licences. "In past years, there's been nominal twoper-cent increases and this year there was a more significant increase," said Powers. "Our fees were so significantly lower than every other municipality. It actually was brought to our attention by the dog walkers, which is ironic.
"When we did some research, we were vastly, vastly below other municipalities," she said. "We usually compare ourselves to the District of North Vancouver as our immediate neighbour and so we also had to align that, we had to look at that information in comparison with the number of complaints that we were getting from park users about commercial dog walkers in our parks."
Dog-walking businesses located within the district have seen their fees rise from $230 to $350 for a one-person company, while one-person companies located outside the district have seen their fees almost double from $285 to $550. Fees increase even further with each dog walker the companies employ.
"A comparable fee in the District of North Vancouver is still 48 per cent higher than the new West Vancouver fees," said Powers.
For 2014, commercial dog walking fees in the District of North Vancouver range from $560 for a oneperson business located within the district to $830 for a one-person business outside of North Vancouver.
Rueger said most of the dog-walking businesses are smaller one-or twoperson operations. "They're sort of the classic small business and that much of an increase without warning is really a difficult thing to grapple with, particularly coming right after Christmas of course," he said.
Julie Davidson, owner of A Walk in the Park Pet Care, said her rates would now go up even though she has kept her fees low and has not increased them in three years.
"I'm in West Vancouver every morning and when I hike in West Vancouver, I'm hiking with West Vancouver dogs so those people are paying taxes in West Vancouver," said Davidson.
"I'd say probably the majority of my business is in North Vancouver, which makes it even more difficult. I don't want to give up my longtime West Vancouver clients, but I have fewer clients in West Van and now I'm going to be paying more to service them."
Powers said the district advertised the fees and permits increases in the North Shore News and on the district's own website.
"We advertise that its happening and the new fees are available on our website and then it's debated in council," said Powers.
"But if you're a dog walker with a business based in Vancouver, you're probably not reading the North Shore News, so we do acknowledge that that is maybe some communications that we're going to have to expand."
Rueger said most walkers might be less angry about the increases if the money was spent on better trail maintenance.
"From my standpoint as someone who's hiking on trails 52 weeks of the year, five days a week, there is a difference. The District of North Van really maintains their trail network very, very well and a lot of the trails in West Van are just falling into pieces because they're not being kept up," he said.
"If there was more money going into the trail network, I think that most walkers would be less angry about this. But the sense is that we're paying an awful lot of money every year and really not getting a lot of benefit for it."
Both Rueger and Davidson are concerned high fees could lead to an increase in unlicensed dogwalking companies. "We're working with fairly specific restrictions in terms of the number of dogs we can walk in terms of how we have to act as companies, and the people who just toss a dozen dogs into the back of the truck and head up to the trails don't have to follow any of those rules, which is a real disadvantage for us," said Rueger.
"Its sort of akin to the guy selling used cars off the sidewalk compared to a proper automobile dealership when you get right down to it, with about the same safety concerns really for a lot of us."
But Powers said the district had become an attractive inexpensive option and local parks had a higher than proportional use by commercial dog walkers over other municipalities.
