by Nancy Gardiner
Northern News Services

NNSL (Oct 24/97) - In some communities, home-based businesses are perceived as a nuisance. In others they are embraced as the way of the future.

In Yellowknife, home-based businesses do well in the support they receive from the city and Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce at a policy level, says one man who has studied the topic.

"People in the South are pushing for 'new urbanism'," said Jim Randall, who recently conducted a home-based business survey sponsored by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

"They want the old suburban single-detached houses of the '70s changed into a more mixed configuration in terms of use. And zoning is a reflection of attitudes of greater numbers of people," said Randall, who works for the department of geography with the University of Saskatchewan.

"In Yellowknife, the chamber is quite supportive on a formal level of home-based businesses, whereas in Regina, it's more adversarial," Randall said. "In the case of Yellowknife, the local Chamber of Commerce is the most vocal advocate for liberalization of home occupation regulations," he said.

In Yellowknife, for the three-month period of June, July, August 1997, there were 47 home-based business starts and 35 commercial and 12 non-resident business starts.

Five cities were surveyed in the study: Vancouver, Edmonton, Regina, Prince Albert and Yellowknife.

"In Regina there's no visitors to the home -- especially not clients or repair vehicles. They don't want home-based businesses and they're construed as a nuisance. And the chamber maintains the status quo. There's more conflict and controversy regarding tax rates," Randall explained.

In Yellowknife, 59 home-based businesses (24 per cent) and 51 commercial (18 per cent) businesses responded.

While economic development agencies, commissions and offices advocate conventional strategies, private citizens, planning departments and home-based business associations and in some cases, chambers of commerce, are quietly advocating more locally-based strategies that stress skills training, funding for setting up new business and a relaxation of zoning regulations, he said.

For the majority of respondents in all five communities -- 66.3 per cent -- indicated that their home business is their only form of work. And the average income from home businesses constituted 45.4 per cent of household income.

Randall undertook the study because recent nationwide surveys indicate residential neighbourhoods are increasingly becoming places of paid work, he said. Yet despite the changes, very little research has been done to see how home-based businesses are fitting into communities.