Report to: General Committee                            Date Report Authored: December 1, 2010

 

 

SUBJECT:                         Proposed Licence Fee By-law Amendments

PREPARED BY:              W. Wiles, Manager, By-law Enforcement & Licencing, x4851

 

 

 

RECOMMENDATION:

 

1)                  That the Report entitled “Licence Fee By-law Amendment” be received; and,

 

2)                  That the 2011 Operating Budget for Miscellaneous License Fees (Account 310-323-8504) for the By-law Enforcement and Licensing Division be amended to include the anticipated additional late fee revenue of $10,000; and,

 

3)                  That future annual licence fee increases be based on a change in the Consumer Price Index  in April of each year with such increases being effective January 1st and rounded to the nearest dollar; and further,

 

4)                  That Staff be authorized and directed to do all things necessary to give effect to this resolution;

 

1. Purpose   2. Background   3. Discussion   4. Financial  

 

5. Others (HR, Strategic, Affected Units)   6. Attachment(s)

PURPOSE:

To incorporate a new fee for the late renewal of licences into Licence Fee By-law 2002-284; and, to change the month used for the determination of annual licence fee increases based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) from September to April of each year in order to ease the administrative coordination associated with implementing the fee changes.

 

BACKGROUND:

Fees for the licences issued by the By-law Enforcement & Licencing Division are set in By-Law 2002-284 (the Licence Fee By-law). The current fees were established to offset the identified costs for administering the various licence types.

 

The proposed amendment introduces late fees for applicants that submit their application past the renewal date (see Attachment “A” for a list of proposed late fees). The new late fees will directly recover additional costs associated with the processing of late applications.  Applicants are advised of the late fees in their initial renewal notice.

 

The amendment will also move the month for the determination of a CPI based annual fee increase.  In 2008, Markham Council adopted a resolution authorizing staff to automatically align licence fees with inflationary costs (using the September CPI as the driver for the following year fee increase).

 

Staff has found the use of the September CPI to be problematic as it does not afford them sufficient time to effectively re-program the automated Licencing Renewal System and generate some 1,800 renewal letters/notices in a timely manner for distribution in the Fall. As such, staff is recommending that the April CPI be used instead.  Such a change would provide staff with sufficient time to conduct the annual renewal process and would also provide staff with greater certainty with respect to Operating Budget forecasting as Operating Budget forecasting occurs during July/August each year.

 

FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS AND TEMPLATE:

The Division anticipates the introduction of late fees will increase the percentage of all licences being renewed on time to 95% from 80%.  Revenues associated with the introduction of the late fees are estimated to be $10,000 annually, and will be included in the 2011 Operating Budget for Miscellaneous License Fees (Account 310-323-8504).

 

HUMAN RESOURCES CONSIDERATIONS

Not Applicable

 

ALIGNMENT WITH STRATEGIC PRIORITIES:

Municipal Services - Cost recovery for services being provided.

 

BUSINESS UNITS CONSULTED AND AFFECTED:

Finance

 

 

 

RECOMMENDED BY: 

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ATTACHMENTS:

Attachment ‘A’- Draft By-law Amendment

Attachment ‘B’- Appendix 1 to Draft By-law Amendment