Regulation by Municipal Licensing

Robert B. Shortly was a chartered accountant in Toronto.

The authors who are, respectively, from the Department of Economics of the University of Toronto, the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto, and The Ontario Economics Council, each prepared a paper on municipal licensing in Ontario. The overall focus is on the purpose, structure, and complexity of the current Ontario licensing system. The main purposes of licensing are to compensate for the failure of the market to attain certain ends, to redistribute income, and to achieve certain socialized cultural objectives. Examples include the taxicab industry (which is discussed as a separate paper) and its fare structure, the licensing of body rub parlours, the licensing of tradesmen, and so on. In fact, there is such a myriad of licenses and by-laws that obsolescence and conflict are inevitable.

Currently, the municipal licensing power is delegated from the provincial government. The authors recommend a reorganized system in which provincial and municipal powers would be exercised more rationally to deal with problems at the level at which they tend to occur.

As with any research study, one would have to have more than a passing interest in this topic to find the book of value, despite the fact that everyone’s day-to-day life is invariably affected by licensing practices. Those who persevere, however, will find the book quite readable.