Saugeen Shores will cap its increase to Bingo and Raffle Lottery Licences, after getting pushback from local groups.
During last year's review of fees and charges, the town approved a standard three per cent of the total prize value to recover the costs of administering the licences. The previous fee was $63.30 for each Bingo Licence, and $12.66 for each Raffle or Bazaar Licence.
Mayor Luke Charbonneau said he heard from groups that weren't able to deal with the sudden and major cost change.
"As a couple of our larger charitable lottery operators started to apply for licences this year — namely the Legion and the Lions Club — they were hit with bills that were substantially higher than what they were used to," he told council. "They were advising me that they wouldn't be able to run things like Lions TV Bingo at these rates, so I really appreciate the work the Clerk has done to bring this back and revisit it so we can attempt to contain those costs a little bit."
Staff recommended capping the fee at $450 per licence so that the town could still recoup the costs of doing the work, but Mayor Charbonneau said maybe that shouldn't be the goal.
"The question is, ought our goal here be full cost recovery? Or should our goal be establishing some sort of reasonable fee but also acknowledging the value of the money that's raised through these raffles to good causes across the community. From $63 last year to $450 this year is a big increase," he said.
Instead, the motion was amended to cap fees at $125 per licence and revisit the matter at budget time.