The Village of Burns Lake has reached an agreement to join BizPal, the online service that helps business owners navigate what permits they need to operate their business.
Burns Lake is joining approximately 110 other communities in B.C. that currently use BizPal.
BizPal is a free online service that saves entrepreneurs and small business owners potential time and money.
It was first launch in 2005, and reduces the amount of time owners, and potential business owners spend determining what regulations apply to their business.
This is a unique partnership between federal, provincial and municipal governments, that provides regulatory information to business in a specific location.
In a statement, John Rustad, MLA, Nechako Lakes, said that Bizpal will help encourage investment.
"Bizpal is an important tool for Burns Lake's economy, as we look to encourage investment and small business growth," Rustad said, "the success of small business is represented in community success, so I'm very happy to welcome the BizPal program as another way to help local businesses succeed."
On its website, Bizpal states that it was created to help business owners find what they need from all three levels of government, and includes the benefits of the service as being free, saving business owners time and being available 24 hours-a-day, seven days-a-week.
Bizpal works by potential business owners going to the website, www.bcbizpal.ca, a following three simple steps.
Firstly, enter the location of your business, for example, Burns Lake.
Secondly, enter the type of business that you wish to own and operate, for example, a restaurant, nursery or book store.
Finally, a list of selections will appear.
These selections will be a list of topics that you plan on doing, for example, if you were to own and operate a restaurant and you planned on selling alcohol.
Going through each of these topics, the final step is checking off each box that relates to your business.
After completing the final step a list of the number of permits you need and the links to find and fill out the forms will appear on the screen.
Burns Lake Mayor, Luke Strimbold says that support for local entrepreneurs is important.
"We are always looking for new tools to support local entrepreneurs in the Burns Lake area and the BizPaL program is an excellent example," Mayor Strimbold said.
"Having the information needed coming from a single source, local entrepreneurs will spend less time dealing with red tape, which will save them money and effort in the process, and more time building their business. BizPaL will be a great tool to help continue to grow our economy and our community."
Bizpal only helps find what permits each specific business needs, it doesn't issue permits directly, the forms still need to be filled out and sent in.
For more information visit, www.bcbizpal.ca