My Dog Daycare

It's been an interesting couple of months. I received a phone
call from the city asking if I was operating a home based dog
daycare without the requisite "Class 2 Home Occupation Permit."
After it all was explained to me, I admitted that I was.

Apparently, I had received a complaint; while they're not
allowed to divulge much, the city was kind enough to tell me
that it was not from a neighbour and that it came from someone
who lived distant to me. I knew that no client would have
complained and that a competitor complaint was extremely
doubtful.

Amazingly, the bureaucrats were all exceedingly helpful and
hand-held me through the alarmingly complex process of getting a
permit. As it turned out, I think they were on my side because

shore...

It's best not to generalize from a limited set of
experiences, but my experiences with Canadian bureaucracies
have been almost uniformly positive. The most surprising
one was when applying for citizenship I actually got a phone
call from Citizenship and Immigration Canada helping me sort
out some documentation issues - it couldn't have been more
different from my mother's experiences with the US
Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Here in a small city the local bureaucrats will tend to be
friendly and chatty, but stuff still doesn't seem to get
done.

of all the letters of support I got from my neighbours and that
the original (and only) complaint and follow-up was extremely
oddly phrased. Heh.

diddy...

HOWE odd is that? I wonder..
Glad you got your permit.

Rocky...

I'm glad it's over.

Not only did I receive the permit, but they gave me the most
flexible residential dog daycare permit ever awarded in the city
of Calgary. Thank you, oh mysterious complainant!

sighthounds & siberians...

WHOWE, an oddly-phrased complaint from someone not in the area, eh?
Glad it all ended well, and I'm sure your complainant is too.

Rocky...

What's cool is that it ended better than I would have expected.

Mustang Sally

shore...

Woohoo! But admit it - don't you miss that little frisson
of illicitness?

Rocky...

I admit to being somewhat dismayed by the laws which allowed a
good service--one that had the backing of my neighbours--come
into question because of the assertions of an anonymous (to me)
complainant.

Yet I was totally stoked by the amount of local and official
support I received.

Blatant plug for Rocky's House Calgary Dog Daycare:
http://CalgaryDogDaycare.com/