Williams Lake businesses will receive a reprieve on licence fees with the city in 2021 after council decided to reduce the rate by 50 per cent as a COVID-19 relief program.
There are around 1,000 businesses paying the fee on an annual basis.
City council voted in favour of the move during the Tuesday, Jan. 12 regular council meeting as it will cost the city $75,000.
“Some businesses have already paid so rather than refund them, we will put it towards a credit for 2022,” Mayor Walt Cobb said.
To cover the shortfall the city will allocate some of the $2.6 million it received from the provincial government’s COVID-19 Restart Grant for local governments.
Read more: Williams Lake receives $2.6 million from province’s COVID-19 safe restart grant
Additionally the city hopes to maintain a zero per cent tax increase and zero per cent water and sewer rates increase in 2021, Coun. Scott Nelson noted.
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