Changes to food trucks not ruled out says City Council

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Council was hesitant to change the policy outright but agreed to send the matter for further investigation.

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Mayor Greg Dionne spoke strongly against changes, pointing out the differences in property taxes paid by restaurants and the roughly $500 paid by mobile food vendors to operate in town.

“I believe our bylaws work,” he said.

In Dionne’s opinion, there are fewer people eating out and that makes it difficult for permanent restaurants to compete with mobile vendors that have lower costs.

“All of a sudden there’s three or four food trucks paying four or five hundred dollars each and it’s oh, let’s go get fish and chips instead,” Dionne said.

Permanent restaurants also employ hundreds of staff, operate year-round and donate significant amounts of money to the community.

He said that Buzfoods wants to set up multiple trucks at one location near Diamond North Credit Union, which means the Spice Trail, Selina’s Donair, Mr. Sub and Family Pizza are all close by.

Carpenter disputed that statement, saying they are not looking at having multiple trucks at what is one of the busiest intersections in the city.

“We hadn’t planned on doing that. We’re just looking at the location for ourselves right now,” he said.

The property owner was also at the executive committee meeting and said he is looking to mitigate some of the costs of owning the land, which needs to sit empty for a while to remediate the soil.

Other councillors were reluctant to do nothing, however, and voted down Dionne’s motion to deny the request.

Instead, Coun. Dawn Kilmer moved to have staff look at what changes could be made, emphasizing that could mean shorter distances but also higher annual permit fees for the trucks.

That motion passed, which both truck owners were happy with.

“I think the decision is good. At least they can look at things and get a broader perspective of the change,” said Carpenter.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com