Lemonade-stand fiasco sours kids on bureaucracy
12-year-old entrepreneurs squeezed out of park for setting up shop without a licence
When you're 12 years old and looking to raise some cash, there are some old standbys that kids have long relied on -- such as selling cool lemonade on a hot summer's day.
Just don't forget that business licence.
Friends Alex Pedersen and Mackenzie Burke Sikorra learned that lesson the hard way when the young would-be entrepreneurs had their lemonade and popcorn stand unceremoniously shut down by a bylaw officer in Port Coquitlam.
The pals were selling lemonade for a buck, popcorn for $5 -- and even some dog treats for just 75 cents -- to help Burke Sikorra's soccer team raise money for uniforms.
They set up a couple of stools and table at a Vancouver park, which is popular with dog-walkers, at 10 a.m. on a bright summer's day last week. Their stand was just inside the wooden fence of the park's entrance, they say, but outside the off-leash dog area, which specifies no food allowed.
Business was brisk until things turned sour in mid-afternoon when a bylaw officer stopped by their table.
"He said, 'I hate to be a pain in the butt, but you have to pack up because you don't have a business licence'," Burke Sikorra said.
"I felt mad at the city because it's not very nice trying to shut down some kids trying to sell lemonade," added Pedersen.
Barb Pedersen, his mother, said she was "just very surprised and a little disappointed that they'd quash two young boys' ingenuity."
Coun. Glenn Pollock said the city probably would have "looked the other way," except it received a complaint from a resident, who described the lemonade and food stand as "elaborate" with a table, two stools and an umbrella.
Once a public complaint was lodged, the bylaw officer had no choice but to act, said Pollock.
Just don't forget that business licence.
Friends Alex Pedersen and Mackenzie Burke Sikorra learned that lesson the hard way when the young would-be entrepreneurs had their lemonade and popcorn stand unceremoniously shut down by a bylaw officer in Port Coquitlam.
The pals were selling lemonade for a buck, popcorn for $5 -- and even some dog treats for just 75 cents -- to help Burke Sikorra's soccer team raise money for uniforms.
They set up a couple of stools and table at a Vancouver park, which is popular with dog-walkers, at 10 a.m. on a bright summer's day last week. Their stand was just inside the wooden fence of the park's entrance, they say, but outside the off-leash dog area, which specifies no food allowed.
Business was brisk until things turned sour in mid-afternoon when a bylaw officer stopped by their table.
"He said, 'I hate to be a pain in the butt, but you have to pack up because you don't have a business licence'," Burke Sikorra said.
"I felt mad at the city because it's not very nice trying to shut down some kids trying to sell lemonade," added Pedersen.
Barb Pedersen, his mother, said she was "just very surprised and a little disappointed that they'd quash two young boys' ingenuity."
Coun. Glenn Pollock said the city probably would have "looked the other way," except it received a complaint from a resident, who described the lemonade and food stand as "elaborate" with a table, two stools and an umbrella.
Once a public complaint was lodged, the bylaw officer had no choice but to act, said Pollock.
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