During the Council meeting on September 20, 2021, we received a report from the Planning department on updates to their fees. In looking at how they were structured, it was clear to me that they didn’t consider equity in the process of setting the fees.
While there are certain limitations as to how fees can be structured due to the Local Government Act/Community Charter (they must be cost-recovery), I believe there is room for a more equitable fee structure to be explored while maintaining a cost-recovery format. As such, I motioned for this to be explored by staff and presented to the Financial Management Committee before the annual fee revisions for the year 2022.
This motion passed unanimously.