Guelph’s pilot seasonal patio program is now permanent, after a unanimous vote from council on Tuesday.
The three-year pilot program followed a one-year effort created in response to the pandemic and lockdowns.
Fees associated with the use of public space by restaurant owners will come into play. One of the fees for businesses that choose to be part of the program is a monthly fee of $10 per sq/m of patio space on parking spaces, not the use of the sidewalk.
A delegate was in disagreement with the fee being set to $10 per sq/m.
The owner of La Reina in downtown, Bryan Steele, expressed his thoughts on it and gave an example of the cost for Toronto business owners. He said they pay $49 per sq/m and with a population of 3 million. The population-based cost for Toronto is less than it is for Guelph business owners who pay $10 per sq/m for a population size of 150,000, meaning Guelph would charge nearly four times more than Toronto, Steele said.
Steele said he disagrees with the narrative restaurants are making money hand over fist. He broke down La Reina’s costs; 35 per cent for labour, 25 per cent for food, 10 per cent for rent, three per cent for hydro and gas, and operating the patio would be around 10 per cent. La Reina’s profit margin is four cents for every dollar.
With $10 per sq/m, La Reina won’t be putting out the patio, Steele said. A fee of $3 per sq/m per month is fair.
“We hope that the patio representatives and city council find a way to adjust this rate because we simply can’t afford $10 per sq/m,” said Steele.
Dino Scrementi who owns Dino’s Athletic Direct is concerned how the patio program has impacted parking, he wrote in a letter to council. Businesses like restaurants who benefit from the patio program should have to pay a higher fee than other businesses downtown, he said.
There should be boundaries for patios so the space doesn’t exceed the footage of the business.
“That way neighbouring businesses do not have to deal with smoking, drinking, and particularly the noise that is created by these patios in front of their store/business when they are not participating with a patio themselves,” he said in the letter.
His other argument is the patio space takes up parking spaces shoppers could otherwise be using if they were available. City council did not speak to this letter.
Coun. Dominique O’Rourke put forth an amendment to the seasonal patio program as described in a July report. It would be amended “to reflect a revenue neutral service level with a $10 per sq/m per month for an on-street fee with any additional funding coming from the general tax levy in the case that fees do not fully cover the cost of the program,” the amendment said.
She said the original proposal had an estimated $175,000 cost per year for the program and it would fully consume almost a quarter of the municipal accommodation tax (MAT). “There’s less pressure on either the MAT or the tax base to support the seasonal patio program,” O’Rourke said about the amendment.
There would be a reduction in service levels to the program and instead of a full-time employee who would deal with administrative duties for it, they would be part time.
“The difference is in the availability of the staff person after all the inspections after all the set up so it’s in the potential level of service afterwards. So staff have looked out what that level of service expectation is going to be and they found ways to trim that back so that the cost of administering the program comes down which makes it more revenue neutral,” O’Rourke said.
Her amendment was voted in favour unanimously.
Coun. Erin Caton asked what the impact on the MAT would be if the $10 was phased in within two years since the previous $3 per sq/m fee the season to now $10 per month is quite the jump. For the first year of the program the fee would have to be closer to $7.50 and around $20,000 would have to be drawn from the MAT, responded city staff.
At $10 the average cost for a 60 sq/m patio in the seasonal patio program would cost a business $600 a month and in total $3,000 per season.
Coun. Carly Klassen put forth a motion to have staff put together an information report on an annual basis about the patio program. Council and staff acknowledged the first year would be a baseline of information for years to come. The motion passed.
