Julianna Tan says her world was turned upside down when she got a letter this summer summoning her to court.
“It’s like pure chaos,” Tan said. “I’m a very regular person. I’m just a citizen here in Saskatoon trying to run a business.”
Tan was being summoned to court to resolve a bylaw dispute between a business she co-owns — the Little Market Box and the city — which resulted in a fine of more than $18,000 for operating without a business license.
The Little Market Box in Riversdale sells a variety of artisanal products from more than 75 local vendors. Tan says she operates under thin margins and would have to close the store to pay the fine by Nov. 15.
“We’re trying to be creative and find ways of how we can make it,” she said. “A lot of us are kind of month by month, so I made it very clear that a fine of this magnitude would absolutely force us to close our doors.”
Tan moved The Little Market Box and another business, Those Girls at the Market, to the location on 20th Street West roughly two years ago after outgrowing her previous building.
According to city bylaw, businesses are required by law to obtain a new license prior to moving because the license is tied to the physical location.
Tan said she filed the necessary paperwork prior to moving. The license application was put on hold after raising an issue about the use of the building and if it was permitted for Tan’s business in October of 2022.
This resulted in the city seeking a permit from Tan before ultimately having the application denied in February of 2023. The city then sent Tan a letter when the permit and license applications were incomplete informing her further actions would be taken if she did not complete her business license application.
A second letter was sent the following month, but Tan did not receive them because they were sent to an old address Tan didn’t update.
That led to the city charging both businesses under the bylaw for operating without a business license.
“We just simply cannot come up with $18,000,” Tan said.
The Little Market Box in Riversdale sells a variety of artisanal products from more than 75 local vendors. (Keenan Sorokan/CTV News)
Tan says she didn’t learn of all of this until receiving the court summons in June of 2024, but that may not be the case.
According to the city solicitor’s office, Tan had been part of an email exchange between April 2022 and Oct. 2022, outlining the detailed process that needed to be followed when the licence was denied because of a missing permit for the kitchen in the building.
A building permit application was received shortly afterwards, but it was incomplete, and the city contacted both businesses saying they needed to complete the application.
City solicitor Cindy Yelland says she attempted to solve the matter outside of court prior to a trial last month, but Tan opted to resolve the matter in bylaw court.
“The court considered the email exchanges and determined that the city explained the process in detail but the business owner did not take the further steps to obtain their business licence,” Yelland said in an email to CTV News.
According to city bylaw, the city is not required to provide a denial letter to business owners.
The fines levied by the court were $9,254 for each business. Each fine consists of a $4,000 fine and a daily fine of $5 a day for 522 days of non-compliance.
The fines were given on Oct. 10 with Tan being given 30 days to appeal the fine with the Court of King’s Bench.
“My first time learning about the infraction was at court, and so it was it was very fast and escalated very quickly,” Tan said.
Unable to pay the fines, Tan has turned to fundraising and donations to help. She says half of the money has been raised in roughly a week, giving her hope the Little Market Box is here to stay.
“I went from being really hopeless to feeling really hopeful and feeling the support of the community has been something that reminds me of why we do this in the first place and why we choose to live in Saskatoon,” she said.
Tan hopes the city updates its policies one day to include more communication like notice of denial or registered mail to avoid something like this happening to another business.
“Not even being able to make a phone call, not even being able to send a letter to our address,” Tan said. “Yet you’re going to stop us with a fine that’s astronomical and that will absolutely force us to close. That seems extremely punitive, not protective.”
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