B.C. business decries ‘money grab’ to make pandemic patio permanent

The owners of a cafe on Vancouver Island will get to keep their patio but are slamming what they say was an unfair and costly process.

Hide and Seek Coffee in Oak Bay ultimately had to pay $2,000 and go through a city council meeting to have the patio approved.

“It felt like it was an unfair money grab,” co-owner Jamie Owens said.

“We would hope the city would want to help us improve our spaces and improve public spaces where communities get together, and it didn’t feel like that.”

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Hide and Seek is one of many businesses that were granted free temporary patio permits when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out.

The province has since required municipalities to convert those temporary permits to permanent ones, which is where the conflict arose.

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Oak Bay Mayor Kevin Murdoch said patios in his community fall under two categories: those that are directly in front of a business, and those that extend beyond a business’ frontage.

There’s a basic $500 fee for the former, while those that fall into the latter category must pay an additional $1,500 fee.

“We require some consultation with the neighbours and staff have to do a bit of legwork to make sure it is in keeping (with) safety issues, and then that report has to come to council,” Murdoch said.

“That cost essentially covers a portion of our cost for managing the process.”

Murdoch added that businesses got the benefit of patios for four years at no cost.

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Owens said the process felt like needless and expensive red tape, particularly given that the next-door business, whose frontage the patio extends into, was fully in support of the application.

She said just two patios in the community were required to pay the extra fee.

Adding insult to injury for Owens, when the application went before council some councillors took issue with its appearance, describing it as a “horse corral” and not reflective of the community.

In response, the cafe invited residents to come down and help re-paint the patio enclosure over the weekend.

“We decided to show them what Oak Bay is,” she said. “Now they can’t say it doesn’t represent Oak Bay.”