← Business Licence Hearing May 12, 2026
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the business license hearing for May 12th, 2026. I'll now call this business license hearing to order to consider the decision of the chief license inspector to cancel the application for a 2026 business license for Mahmoud Karimi for a short-term rental accommodation at 606-1060 Alberni Street. Before we begin, I have some opening remarks. This hearing is being held in person and by electronic means. Panel members may participate by either method, and any members joining electronically are reminded to enable their video to confirm quorum. The hearing is being live-streamed on the City's website and YouTube, and progress will be updated regularly on X Advanced City Clerk. In case of an emergency requiring evacuation, there are two exits located beyond the glass doors and to the left. If the glass doors are blocked, please use one of the four additional exits within the chamber. And do not use the elevator, use the stairs instead. If you require assistance, remain where you are and security staff will guide you to a safe location. A defibrillator is available at the end of the hallway outside the chamber. I'd like to acknowledge that we are on the unceded homelands of the Musqueam, Squamish and TTsleil-Waututh people. And we thank them for having cared for this land and we look forward to working with them in partnership. as we continue to build this great city together. I will also recognize the immense contributions of the City of Vancouver staff who work hard every day to help make our city an incredible place to live, work, and play. Clerk, may we have the roll call, please?
Councillor Meiszner is in the chair. Councillor Bligh? Councillor Montague?
Present.
UF Quorum Chair Meisner? Present.
Thank you very much. I understand from staff that our case, I'm not sure if they're the applicant or the appellant, they are running late. So we're going to take a recess, a brief recess until they arrive, and then we'll resume the meeting.
Thank you.
We're just going to just ensure that another councillor that's virtual is online and then we can get started.
We're good to go?
Okay, thank you. Okay, so we are going to start with opening remarks from Robert LeBlanc, Council for the City of Vancouver.
by Mr. Karimi of the Chief License Inspector's decision to decline his February 2026 application for a business license to provide short-term accommodations at Unit 606, 1070. in vancouver the decision of the chief license inspector and the basis therefore is set out in her letter of april 2nd 2026 that's located at page 296 of the evidence book that's before the panel and i'll just read the first few paragraphs in that letter at page 296 Dear Mahmoud Karimi, this is further to your application for a short-term rental business license on February 6, 2026, for the above-noted address. By paying by-law violation notice PE33498 on January 9, 2024, you accepted that you were guilty of one count of violating Section 3-16 of the City's License By-law. no owner of any premises shall permit, suffer, or allow the undertaking of any business, trade, profession, or other occupation at said premises unless the person carrying on the business, trade, profession, or other occupation holds a subsisting city license, therefore. Section 4.3 of the city's license bylaw states, on receipt of an application and before issuing any license thereon, The inspector shall ascertain whether the applicant has at any time within the preceding five years been convicted of any offence under any statute of Canada. province of British Columbia or elsewhere, or under any bylaw of the City of Vancouver and the Inspector, if of the belief that the nature of the offence relates to the business, trade, profession, or other occupation for which the application has been made, shall refuse to issue the licence. If the Inspector refuses to issue such licence, the applicant may appear before Council, who may grant or refuse the application. Upon review of your 2026 short-term rental business license application, I am of the belief that the nature of the offense outlined above directly relates to the nature of the business for which you have applied. You are therefore ineligible to obtain a short-term rental business license in 2026, and as a result, your business license application for 606-1060 Alberni Street has been cancelled. In short, to summarize the basis for the Chief License Inspector's decision was the existence of an acknowledgement of guilt with respect to carrying on short-term rental accommodation at the Alberni Street premises without having the required business license back in 2024. I will draw the court or the panel's attention to page 300 of the materials.
That includes a copy of the license bylaw and on page 301 at the bottom is the reference to section 4 sub 3 of the license bylaw requiring the chief license inspector to refuse the application. The City's witness in today's proceedings is the Deputy Chief Licence Inspector, Alina Orliu, who will take the panel through the materials in the evidence book and explain how the Chief Licence Inspector arrived at the decision to refuse the business license application. What the panel can expect to hear is that following a full review of the business license application it was determined that there's a history of non-compliance with respect to the applicant and operating short-term rental accommodation at the Alberni Street premises without a required business license and that would include the issuance of other bylaw violation notices prior to the one issued January 9th, 2024. The chief license inspector did not support the issuance of the license in this case. Her decision to decline the issuance of the license in the first instance was reasonable and fully on the basis of a full application review. We submit that this panel should give deference to that decision. Of course, Mr. Karimi has the opportunity today to persuade this panel otherwise. Before reviewing the evidence, there are some legal and procedural matters to note. This panel's power to review a business license are set out at Section 275 of the Vancouver Charter. That reads, the granting or refusing of a license to an applicant, therefore, and the revocation or suspension of a license which has been granted shall be deemed to be in the discretion of Council, and Council may grant, refuse, revoke, or suspend the license without stating any reasons. Therefore, save in respect of a licensee who by reasonable efforts cannot be found, the Council shall not revoke the license without giving. the holder thereof an opportunity to be heard. Under that section, you have broad powers to decline the license application. This is an administrative proceeding. The rules of natural justice apply. The applicant is entitled to hear the allegations against him. He may respond to those allegations. He may ask questions of any witnesses put forward by the city, and he may make submissions on his own behalf. Those are the opening remarks. We can proceed with calling the city's witness, Ms. Olu.
Great. Thanks, Council LeBlanc. We will now hear the testimony by the City of Vancouver's witness, Alina Olu, Deputy Chief License Inspector.
Thank you. Good morning, Ms. Orlew. You're here this morning to take us through the evidence materials in respect to the chief license inspector's refusal to issue the permit for the premises at 606-1060 Alberni Street. Is that right? Yes. Good morning, everyone. And that particular premises, can you describe what type of property that is? This is a one-bedroom unit located at 606 1060 Alberni Street. It is a strata. And I see here at page five of the materials, we have a timeline of events. Maybe I'll just ask the panel to go to page five, and we can use that as a starting point.
This timeline of events, I understand, is prepared by staff in the short-term rental office? That's correct. And this contains a chronology in terms of that office's dealings with respect to Mr. Karimi and his various applications and enforcement related to 606-1060 L. Bernie Street, is that right? That's correct. Okay, the first entry there. It's November 8th, 2017. I understand that is the instance at which Mr. Karimi became the sole registered owner of 606-1060 Alberni Street.
Yes.
Okay. The next entry is April 19th, 2019. This would be the first time the city received a short-term rental application for a business license by Mr. Karimi. Is that right? Yes, that's correct. Let's just start it off there. and I'll ask you to inform the panel of the history of Citi's efforts to enforce the provisions of the license bylaw with respect to Mr. Citi. So, yes, Mr. Karimi and Persia Moheptabash both initially applied for the short-term rental business license on April 19th of 2018, and that license was issued on that very same day. IF WE SORT OF MOVE TO THE NEXT ENTRY, WHICH IS NOVEMBER 19, 2019, OUR SHORT-TERM RENTAL OFFICE INITIATED AN AUDIT OF MR. KARIM'S LICENSE. THE NOTICE OF AUDIT IS LOCATED ON PAGE 13. The reason that audit was triggered is because Persia Maktabesh had a second, we became aware that there was a second license held by Persia Maktabesh, and that triggered basically audits for both licenses at that point in time.
One thing that I just wanted to sort of make a note of was the ICBC record of address history, which is located on page 287, and that indicates a change of address for Mr. Karimi on November 22nd of 2019, which is just a few days later after having received a notice of audit. And that change is from 1105-2959 Glen Drive in Coquitlam to his short-term rental unit at 606-1060 Alberni Street in Vancouver.
Is a address history with respect to Mr. Carmini kept on file with ICBC, is that right? That's correct. And this address history, this was submitted in the most recent business license application? Yes. And it appears to include a history of his residences going back to 2000 and... effective 2008 to 2016 is the earliest, up to January 22nd, 2026, showing the current, or at least at the time that this was issued in January, current principal residents of 606-1060 Alberni Street, correct?
That's correct. And you're referring to there was a change in address effectively right after the audit was set? Right after the audit notice.
Thank you, you can carry on.
During the audit, Mr. Karimi indicated that Persia Maktabesh was just simply assisting with the short-term rental operation and that he is the only principal resident, was the only principal resident at that time at 606 1060 Alberni Street. And subsequently, Persia Makhzabesh was removed from the license, and Mr. Karimi passed the audit at that point in time, so he was allowed to continue operating his short-term rental office. On... May 3rd of 2021, our short-term rental office received an email from Kim Lancaster, who was the Strata property manager, informing us that Mr. Karimi's letter of authorization was going to expire at the end of that month.
This triggered an audit, which our short-term rental office initiated on June 16th of 2021, requesting that Mr. Karimi provide documentation supporting compliance with bylaw requirements.
On August 3rd of 2021, some partial documentation was received from Mr. Karimi and that the ICBC record of address history at that point in time indicated that Mr. Karimi changed his address again on July 30th of 2021. So that was, again, just a few days prior to submitting the documentation to us. And that was from 401-12040-222nd Street in Maple Ridge to his rental unit. On November 10th of 2021, Mr. Karimi's license was suspended because he was unable to provide missing documentation after numerous extensions, including a valid strata letter of authorization. And that letter of suspension is located on page 92.
On December 21st of 2021, Mr. Karimi requested account closure of his license, number 21-156296, indicating that he would be selling his principal residence.
However, Mr. Karimi continued to operate without a license, and on January 19th of 2022, our short-term rental office issued a by-law violation notice, number PE33410, which is located on page 100, and an order located on page 98, for operating without a license.
These were returned to our short-term rental office subsequently as unclaimed.
Okay, just to interrupt for a second. How was it determined that the premises was continuing to be provided short-term rental accommodation after the license was suspended? Was this... Your office monitoring?
Our office monitors, yes, listings.
Monitoring the listing activity on?
Listing activity and through host compliance as well. We do receive data for that purpose.
And so the office determined that it was continuing to be offered short-term rental accommodation, and so that's why the bylaw violation notice was issued?
That's correct.
If you could carry on that.
On January 29th of 2022, an ownership change took place, and Mohamed Mahdabesh and Mahmoud Karimi were both registered as owners of Unit 606, 1060 Alberni Street.
OUR OFFICE CONTINUED TO MONITOR COMPLIANCE, AND WE LEARNED THAT THE UNIT CONTINUED TO OPERATE WITHOUT A VALID BUSINESS LICENSE, AND THAT'S THE EVIDENCE THERE IS ON PAGE 111, AND ISSUED A FINAL WARNING ON MARCH 11TH OF 2022 TO MR. KARIMI, WHICH IS THE WARNING IS LOCATED ON PAGE 109.
Shortly after, our short-term rental office received a new application. The number is 22-204710 for a short-term rental business license from Mohamed Makhdabash. And on March 25th of 2022, a verification letter was sent by our office. indicating the documentation requirements for submission. And that letter is located on page 117.
On April 1st of 2022, I just want to make a note that Mr. Karimi paid a reduced amount for BVN P33410 of $500. Shortly after, on April 6th of 2022, Mr. Mokhtabesh was the new applicant for the short-term rental, submitted partial documentation.
And... In between April 6th and October 13th of 2022, our short-term rental office attempted numerous times to, by engaging with Mr. Mokhtar Besh and requiring, you know, the remainder of the documentation to be submitted. UNFORTUNATELY, MR. MAKHDEBESH WAS UNABLE TO SUBMIT ALL THE REQUIRED DOCUMENTATION SUPPORTING PRIMARY RESIDENTS, AND ON OCTOBER 13TH, A NONSUPPORT LETTER WAS ISSUED.
THAT'S CORRECT. We're about halfway down page seven of the timeline. And I see that there's some further activity on August 14th, 2023, when it's determined that the property, which continues to not have a license in place, is providing short-term rental accommodation. Okay, pick up from August 14th, 2023.
So on August 14th of 2023, our short-term rental office identified unlicensed activity and issued by-law violation notices to the operator, Persia Moxabesh. The number for that is P33170. And owners, Mahmoud Karimi, The number for that ticket is P33169. And Mohamed Mokhtabesh, and the number for that is P33168. Those are located on page 197.
How was it determined that Ms. Mokhtabesh was operating the short-term rental at the property? Was her name associated with the listing?
She was listed as a host, I believe.
So she's not an owner of the property any longer. Mr. Karimi and Mr. Bontebesch are the registered owners, but she's still associated.
Yes, and exactly, yeah. Thank you. Final warnings were sent on September 6th of 2023. Shortly after, Mr. Karimi applied again for his short-term rental business license under application number 23-288-3293, and a verification notice was sent on September 29th of 2023. That's located on page 216. Again, Mr. Karimi failed to submit all requested documentation by the due date. And on November 8th of 2023, the decision was made to not support the license application. And that notice is located on page 245. Following that, on November 25th of 2023, unlicensed activity continued, and the evidence for that is located on page 247. And on November 28th of 2023, by-law violation notices, as well as orders, were issued again to the operator and the owners, Persia Makhdabesh, Mahmoud Karimi, as well as Mohammed Makhdabesh, for operating without a license.
This is the second by-law violation notice issued?
That's correct.
On January 9th of 2024, Mr. Karimi paid for the bylaw violation notice, PE33498, that was issued on November 25th of 2023.
And this is where it sort of brings us a little bit to our current application.
During the verification process, our short-term office reviewed the documentation submitted by Mr. Karimi for his 2026 license, along with the short-term rental history at unit 60660 Alberni Street that I just covered. As mentioned previously, according to Section 4, 3 of our business license bylaw 4450, if the applicant was convicted within the preceding five years of any offense directly related to the nature of the business for which the individual applied, then the applicant is not eligible to obtain such license. What the evidence shows is ongoing and repeated noncompliance over a period of three years with both the primary residence bylaw requirement as well as the requirement to hold a valid business license in order to operate a short-term rental. And that is despite all our short-term rental office staff enforcement efforts. This demonstrates a total disregard for rules which are intended to protect long-term housing stock and ensure accountability and integrity within our short-term rental program. As Mr. Karimi admitted guilt for the offense of operating without a license by paying BVN P33498, on January 2024. His application was not supported for the short-term rental business license issuance, and a notice of non-support was issued on April 2nd, 2026, which is located on page 296.
And I believe that brings me to an end.
All right, maybe I'll just ask if your office has done any research with respect to listing activity of the premises in recent years at times at which it was known that there was no license in place.
Yes. And it was discovered.
Just prior to this meeting, we reviewed... the provincial portal, as well as host compliance. And we were able to determine that the practice continued of operating without a license throughout 2024, as well as part of 2025. There is a minimum of 142 stays that have been recorded through the provincial portal. that we can see. And the most recent, I would say, stay was in June of 2025.
Before those 142 stays, was there a valid business license in place? No. Short term?
No, there was no valid business license.
notwithstanding several years of city communication to the applicant regarding the need to have a business license.
That's correct.
Thank you. Those are my questions. Thank you both. Panel members, if you have any questions for the witness, please place yourself on the queue.
Councillor Montague.
Yeah, thanks, Chair. Just wanted to confirm a few things and timelines and individuals involved here.
Do we know the relationship between Persia Mokhtash and Mr. Karimi?
I am not aware of the relationship between them. Okay. And how about the relationship between Persia and Mohammed Mokhtash?
I'm not sure.
Okay, no worries. And I'm just looking through the timeline again.
The original business license that was issued back in April of 2018, when was that? What date was that revoked?
It was revoked.
There was an audit in November of 2019. June 16th.
On November 10th of 2021. Okay.
And then between November 10th of 2021 and now, despite the issuing of a violation notice, in 2021, looks like August of 2023, and another one in November of 2023.
Has there been a license at all? No. Okay. Thank you, Chair. Those are my questions for now.
Thanks, Councillor. Okay.
Does the applicant have any questions for the witness?
Is it my turn?
Yes, yes, sir.
First of all, thanks for this meeting. I can explain myself, what's happened in my... Life and personal life.
Okay, we do have an opening remarks section coming up, but this is for questions to the witness.
I don't have any questions.
Okay, so we'll move on to your opening remarks. So just for those following the hearing, we're now going to move on to opening remarks from the applicant. So please begin your opening remarks.
I appreciate for the gathering this time to explain what's happened to my life. I know I had violations. I accept that. But in the last few years in my personal life, I was in separations with Persia Mohiptash. And then she's my ex-wife right now. She's recently here as a witness. And I got depression. I had two kids. And I have a sick father. I was taken from my father for the past five years. And the Glen Drive address is my parents' address. My father passed away about six months ago. And then I've been hospitalized him about every two days I was in the hospital. because of him. And then I had two depressed kids. I have one depression too. And I have the pill in my pocket here. This is my pill. I'm using it for depressions. And I know I didn't operate these property really well because everything was out of my control. Because I couldn't manage. I was overwhelmed. The reason we are renting this unit is because we want to support our kids. That's the main reason. And I don't have any defense. I said what happened in the past. But from now on, I am a variable at the law. I know what's going on. I'm in more health. My kids are in unhealth right now. My life is kind of a pre... stabilized stables right now and I can say I can operate this property from now on but this is something you guys gonna make decision about but I know in the past I even know did not know my ex-wife was taking off the property I didn't know about the law she was doing it Muhammad Mohib Taj is the her father and the all these procedures happened. But I truly ask you guys give me one more opportunity to do this business in future, and you're not going to see any guilt, any faults, or anything in future. That's all. I have nothing to say.
Okay, thank you. The applicant, yourself, you may now call witnesses.
Do you have any witnesses? Yes. She's here.
Hi.
Hi there.
If you could please provide your full name, please.
My name is .
Sorry, I believe you're named in the documents, correct? Yes, correct. Is it M-O-H-E-B-T-A-S-H? Correct. Okay, thank you. So, sorry, one moment here. Please go ahead.
So I've heard everything, and again, as Mr. Kimme was saying here, is that, yes, What has happened, we totally take full responsibility for it. We're not here to say what we have done was intentional. Initially, when we started the short-term rental, I personally had no idea that using a platform like the Airbnb platform has to be separate from the primary owners. So that began from that initial idea that, yes, I was managing it, and he had his own property under his name, and I had mine under my name. But they were all under one umbrella.
However, a lot has happened since then, as he explained. We went through a lot of tough times, personally.
Get a glass of water.
I'm sorry, I just...
It's okay. We'll bring you a glass of water.
No, I have lived here for a very long time.
And I have never been to this building.
I didn't even thought it was like this. So when I was overhearing everything, I felt horrible.
But that's not to say that I don't take responsibility for it. Our life situation in the past five, seven years has been very, very stressful.
Lack of financial income, having to pay for mortgage, having two small kids, one with a disabled child.
A sick father-in-law can go on and on and on. Now, I don't want to bore you with all this because I don't have a defense. All I can say is that, yes, we made a mistake, not intentionally. It was just...
out of a lot of stuff happening in our lives. Trying to fix it, we dig a deeper hole. Trying to make it better, something else went apart. Now, we're in a much better situation. We no longer do short-term rental. almost fully right now. We understand that we have only 180 days. We understand all the policies, all the regulations that has been in place. I personally read most of them. I can't say all because it's a lot of pages.
I just ask for another chance, that's all. If we make another mistake, if he does, because I'm no longer involved in the Albany unit,
If he makes another, because I take full responsibility, he had almost not a lot of knowledge about it because I took care of it since day one, but our suppression happened. Our divorce and suppression was in the midst of all this. So I just ask everyone for a second chance. When we paid the fine...
We actually, I noticed that now that when you pay a fine, you're actually saying you made a mistake. I thought paying the fine means that, well, you know, you're fined and you need to pay for it. As a citizen, as a lawfully thing to do is to pay, it's like for a parking ticket, for a speeding ticket, any tickets you get, you pay for it. But now I believe that by paying that, we're actually, it jeopardized our... our motive, because that wasn't the case. We wanted to pay for something that we made a mistake. Anyhow, again, I have no defense, but I just acknowledge what has happened. We take full responsibility for it and just ask for a second chance. That's all. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. Panel members, if you have any questions for the witnesses, please place yourself on the queue. And a reminder that this is the only opportunity to ask questions from the applicant's witnesses.
I'm not seeing any questions. So does the city's council have any questions for the witnesses?
How old are they?
12 and 13 and a half.
And where do the children live?
Sometimes they live with me, sometimes they live with her. And when they live with you, where do you stay?
In our unit. Which unit is that? 606 1060 Albany.
We've heard it's a one-bedroom apartment.
I know, I know that, I know that. But mostly they're... They're with her, but sometimes they hang out with me because I don't have any choice.
You said hang out, but earlier you said...
I mean, my English is not that good. So I mean, we are together, I mean.
So what are the sleeping accommodations?
There's a...
In the bedroom, they sleep in the bedroom. And there's one couch, sofa couch, and then they can leave. One of them is sleeping in the bedroom. One of them is sleeping in the bedroom.
We earlier went to page 287 of the evidence book, and it had a history of your places of residence on file with ICBC.
You have those materials with you now? I don't have it right now.
There are several addresses that are listed as being your residence between June 2008 and January 22, 2026. Alberni Street seems to have been your residence on three separate occasions over that year, and then there were some other properties. These other properties, such as... Let's see, there's one on Harwood, 502-1555 Harwood. Do you own that property?
No.
Who owns that property?
That was one of my friends' address. I just changed the address. I didn't know that if I changed the address, it's going to be affecting my listings. I was changing all the way, and then that's it. It was about two months. I think. The other properties that are listed here, there's one on Glen Drive. That's my parents. It's your parents' home? Yeah. I was taking my father for past five years. I was getting back and forth, and then he passed away about six months ago.
I'm sorry to hear that. For any of these properties, were you the registered owner of them at any time? No.
222 Street, Maple Ridge? No, I was not on anything.
And 1450 Georgia Street?
No.
In the time that you've owned Alberni Street, 1060 Alberni Street, were you the registered owner of any other properties? No. All right, thank you. Those are my questions.
Thank you.
So we'll now move on to closing submissions by the City's Council. I'm going to reflect on the language that was used by the chief license inspector in her denial letter of April 2nd, 2026. And she quotes section 4.3 of the city's license bylaw. which requires the chief license inspector to refuse a business license application if there's been a determination of guilt or conviction with respect to any Vancouver city bylaw that, in her opinion, has to do with the business. proposed to be carried on under the business license application this is a mandatory section that required a refusal in this particular instance it is open to this this panel to decide otherwise
the reason for that particular a section in the first place and put a great deal of weight on it the the city is intent on having parties engaged in regulated business activities I carry out compliance strict compliance with respect to the city's licensing regime the regulations surrounding short-term rental business licenses are particularly important. They came into effect as a result of a great upheaval in terms of the residences that were available to citizens on a permanent basis as a result of an increase in short-term rental activity. And so strict compliance is quite important. I want to emphasize that this is a five-year period in which there's a mandatory refusal for the application. This is a period that I'm going to read into its existence and suggest that it's an opportunity for a person who wants to again carry on business in that regulated activity to reflect on what has gone wrong in the past and how they can do so properly in the future. It is a cooling off period. and everybody who passes that five-year threshold can then reapply, and it would be up to the chief license inspector to assess that application anew. The track record here goes back to 2021. There's a longstanding... history with respect to non-compliance, also a long-standing history with respect to enforcement efforts and resources that were put in this particular matter. I'm going to suggest that notwithstanding the family difficulties that were suffered by Mr. Karimi, it's important to carry out that cooling-off period. It's important for him to reflect in terms of how he can carry out his business in the future to satisfy the city's requirement of strict compliance with its regulatory regime.
So I will suggest that it's appropriate to uphold the refusal of the circumstances. Thank you. So now it's closing submissions by the applicant.
Honest to God, I don't have anything to say, but I just ask you all these teams to... accept my situations and give me one more chance, you know, to my life because I'm supporting two kids. That's the important things in my life right now. And then I need, I'm asking you to give me one more chance to run this business, and I can establish my life. That's it. I know there's so much things in the past happened. I accept that. And because none of them, it was out of one control. I was depressed. I am still in depression right now. And, you know, I have nothing to say. Just I'm living with you to make the decision about that. Thank you so much.
Thanks. Okay, we're now going to move to discussion by the panel. Panel members, if you'd like to make any remarks, please place yourself on the queue. Councillor Montague.
Yeah, thanks, Chair.
I do a fair number of these business license hearings. A lot of them are short-term rental. It's no secret that I'm not a huge fan of some of the both the cities and provinces rules and regulations around short term rentals. I do think that there could be some some changes made. but this isn't the form to change bylaws or change provincial statutes it's to look at a decision made by the our chief building inspector licensing inspector based on current policy and and bylaws um i sympathize with mr creamy his personal situation uh his ex-wife and her personal situation um
I have submitted a motion through the distribution list and I don't know if it's arrived yet. Yes, it has. Okay, so it is a motion. I am concerned with what appears to be kind of a long-term conscious effort made to circumvent the regulations of the bylaw. And while I may not agree with all the regulations in that bylaw, They are there for a reason, and we do have to uphold those. And this doesn't appear to be just an error in judgment. It does appear to be a conscious effort. The address changes, the claims of primary residence, the partial ownership changes, multiple violations. I think for me, what's really concerning too is the multiple violations for operating without a license instead of trying to rectify the issue and become compliant. So I have submitted a motion to uphold the decision of the Chief Licensing Inspector.
Thanks, Councillor. Noted. Councillor Bligh.
Yeah, thanks very much. Yeah, I just appreciate hearing from the applicant today and also our city Our city team licensing and also our legal team here. I am also very sympathetic to the personal situation that you've outlined and appreciate that you've shared that quite openly. I would have to agree that the challenge and what can undermine this process is when personal circumstances are used as a reason not to uphold the bylaws. And so I'm willing to support the motion as Councillor Montague has submitted it on the floor. But again, you know, I do think that there was quite an effort by our licensing team to ask you as an applicant and a short-term rental license applicant to be in compliance. Well, I appreciate. you know, to get to this point and then ask for a second chance. I think we really want to make sure that people who are looking for short-term rental licenses recognize that the process leading up to the point that you get to a hearing has weight and needs to be taken very seriously in order to remain in compliance. And so, unfortunately, I think those opportunities actually happened long before this hearing. So, again, very sympathetic to your situation. I do hope things get a little easier for you both. in your family, but I'm willing to support the recommendation to not proceed with the reissuing of the business license. Yeah, business license.
Okay, thanks, Councillor. So we do have that motion from Councillor Montague on the floor, seconded by Councillor Bligh, I believe. Thank you very much. Okay, so a reminder to any panel member participating virtually whose video is disabled, you'll be marked absent for the vote pursuant to Section 14.13 of the Procedure Bylaw. I'm now going to call the vote. Clerk, if you could please take us to the voting screen, and panel, if you could please register to vote on the voting panel.
Okay, that motion from Councillor Montague to uphold the decision of the Chief License Inspector did pass unanimously. So would someone like to move a motion to adjourn? Moved by Councillor Bligh.
Second.
Seconded by Councillor Montague. All those in favour say aye. Aye. None opposed. So the motion carries and the business license hearing is adjourned. Thank you for being here today.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you.