Vendors are now welcome to set up at Rainy Lake Square on Thursdays without the need for a business license or liability insurance.
Town council has accepted the Fort Frances Downtown Business Improvement Association’s offer to cover the insurance fee.
Councillor Mike Behan is appreciative of the BIA and administration.
“I want to thank the BIA for agreeing to cover the fee for 2023. I also want to thank administration very much for their efforts in helping to resolve this issue. It caused a lot of media backlash and a lot of talk on social media. I think administration really stepped up and went above and beyond to help resolve this situation,” says Behan.
The BIA’s decision to cover the insurance cost removes a ten-dollar fee the town was prepared to charge vendors as a means of recouping the insurance costs.
The fee could come back to the table at a later date as the BIA’s support only covers this year.
Interim Chief Administrative Officer Travis Rob says the town will meet with the BIA to discuss a longer-term arrangement.
“We can work between now and December with the BIA to see what next year looks like. If we can’t come to some sort of agreement where the funding is on a go-forward basis, even if it’s year-by-year, then we can look at adding, at the time when we are looking at our user fee bylaw, that table fee as opposed to doing a special amendment to our user fee bylaw and then not end up having to use it,” says Rob.
The need for liability insurance arose when a review of the town’s insurance policy was determined insufficient to cover vendors at the square.
Opposition from vendors led the town to consider options to help vendors leading to it acquiring the necessary insurance through its policy for an extra $1,2000.
The BIA also covered the need for individual business licences by acquiring one that covered all vendors taking part in the Market Thursdays.
