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Where are all the food trucks in Nanaimo?

Aug 5, 2016 | 12:11 PM

NANAIMO — Food truck operators on Vancouver Island know where to go to make money — and for now, it appears, Nanaimo isn’t on that map.

There was excitement and buzz earlier this year surrounding newly created bylaws, specially designed to attract more food trucks to the harbour city and make it easier for them to operate and be successful.

However, Nelda Richardson, the city’s manger of support services and business licensing, says only six licenses have been issued this year. One for a food truck, four for trailers and one for a food cart.

She says there’s a bit of disappointment in those numbers from the city’s perspective, as they would have liked to have seen more.

Greater Nanaimo Chamber of Commerce CEO Kim Smythe, who was involved in creating the new bylaws, says food truck operators have experience and they know where they’re making money.

“To pull up roots there and say let’s take a shot at this, to take that risk when you know, hey if I stay parked here on Craig Street in Parksville or Craig Street in Duncan and I did $5000 last year, do I really want to take that risk? Or do I want to wait and see what other people’s experiences are,” said Smythe.

Smythe says it’s going to take time for the market and the operators to figure each other out, but he does still believe there is enough demand in the community to support a burgeoning food truck industry.

When the work was put into the new bylaws in 2015, Smythe says it was anticipated that there would be a little better pick up from trucks that are operating out of town.

“You have to expect that a lot of the operators have been operating in other jurisdictions, so they’ve identified their market there and trying to dig out a new market is a pretty big challenge.”

He says there seems to be a bit of a transient nature to a lot of the food truck operators, where they are picking and choosing exactly when and where they want to show up and work.

That makes it hard for potential customers to know what to expect.

Richardson says Maffeo Sutton Park, which has room for six operators at once, was the most popular spot for the longest time. But in the last few weeks trucks have been branching out to Westwood Lake.

She says from all the feedback they’ve been getting, the process of getting the licenses has been smooth and not overly bureaucratic.

Licensing costs are likely not to blame for the lack of local trucks, says Richardson, noting Nanaimo’s fees are in-line with most other communities and cheaper than places like Vancouver and Victoria.

She says they will likely be reaching out to the operators to discuss some potential challenges, while Smythe says it wouldn’t hurt to create a coordinated promotion plan to try to lure some operators to the city.

“I think it wouldn’t hurt if operators of festivals and events in town would make a point of saying, we have food trucks, talk it up a bit.”