Ranya Abu Jaib and her husband Tarek Selek were surprised and disappointed to hear that the city cancelled the mobile vendor guidelines pilot project.
For weeks the owners of Dedo’s food truck had trying to get a hold of the economic development department about the way the mobile vendor rules would work this summer.
“We have a business licence with them, they should be contacting us and letting us know that it’s not going to be working anymore,” said Abu Jaib in disbelief. “Sometimes the season starts in April.”
Earlier this week council decided to back away from creating a specific set of guidelines for mobile vendors, such as food trucks, hot dog stands and newspaper vendors and continue to manage these businesses through the city’s traffic bylaw.
The decision eliminates the reserved food truck stalls at the Lacombe Lake, St. Albert Place, Lions Park and Log Cabin parking lots that were available last season on a first-come, first-serve basis and requires vendors to obtain written permission from the city engineer to set up in public spaces like parking lots, parks and sidewalks.
While the pilot project wasn’t the ideal system by any means – twice the food truck owners were unable to find an unoccupied spot, and the few times they did snag a stall there was never enough foot traffic to justify doing business in St. Albert – the couple was hoping to present an alternative to council.
“We think it was a good start,” she said.
The couple, had they been invited to speak or share their opinion through administration, would have liked to see a program similar to Edmonton’s.
In Edmonton, food truck owners can reserve spots for certain days of the week and even certain hours of the day. They can apply for three or more different locations on a vending permit.
Abu Jaib said a system that allowed vendors to reserve designated spots might have helped counter the pilot’s biggest problem – underutilization.
Last summer the St. Albert-based food truck spent more time serving its metropolitan neighbours because the owners did not want to risk wasting food or time competing for a limited number of spots in St. Albert.
“You can’t fill your truck with food and find somebody in the spot before you. We didn’t risk it. You have staff you’re paying for, you have food that you prepared,” explained Abu Jaib.
Joan Barber, manager of business retention and expansion, told council on Monday that there wasn’t a high enough demand to justify the creation of specific guidelines for mobile vendors, but Abu Jaib and Selek believe it just needed time and a few tweaks to attract more food trucks.
“That’s the difference between the City of Edmonton and the City of St. Albert,” said Abu Jaib. “For Edmonton they wanted to have new bylaws to make it more professional and easier and useful for vendors, so they invited us all to a meeting to see what we would like to change.”
With the approval of new guidelines in May, this summer will see 90 food trucks on Edmonton roads.
Dedo’s will continue to serve hungry farmers’ market patrons every Saturday this summer, but are unsure whether they’ll be able to serve their Mediterranean food in St. Albert any other day of the week.
