Used video games are on their way to beating the big regulatory boss.
During Monday night's meeting, city council unanimously agreed to direct staff to return a changed bylaw regulating secondhand dealers and pawnbrokers.
The amendment would exclude games bylaw's definition of "second-hand property" and treat them the same as books, vinyl records and cassette tapes.
Downtown business owner Kelsy Polnik, the proprietor of Dominion Street's Game Quest store, instigated the change. He came to council on Aug. 25 to expressed concerns about the restrictions the current legislation places on his business.
Polnik requested the city look at the sections of the bylaw requiring a 30-day holding period between getting products and being able to sell them and the restrictions on where products can be acquired and at what hours they can be sold.
The purpose of the bylaw is to reduce the spread of stolen items by allowing the RCMP a chance to review new inventory.
By removing video games from the bylaw altogether, those rules would no longer apply to his business, which should have a positive effect.
"We were hoping to reduce the [holding-period] time and reducing it to nothing is better than I expected," said Polnik, who noted he didn't expect a unanimous decision. "Removing something from the second-hand bylaw, I thought it would be a more daunting process."
Among the options council had to choose from included reducing the holding period for games from 30 days to seven or 14 days; allowing individual businesses to apply to the RCMP for exemptions on both the holding period for particular items and on the hours items can be received – specifically after 8 p.m. – on a case-by-case basis; and setting a minimum monetary value for games that have to be reported to the RCMP.
But going down those routes would shift the responsibility away from the city and on to the RCMP, some member of council noted.
"If it passes, I hope the RCMP would bring any concerns to us as it evolves," said Coun. Murry Krause.
