Personal Wellness Establishments By-Law

Update May 9, 2022

As a Town, our aim with the Personal Wellness Establishments By-law is to provide a licensing framework to give us tools to shut down illegal activity in our community which has been impacting neighbouring businesses and community members.

The Town’s Licensing division has spent many months working directly with businesses that fall into the new Personal Wellness Establishments classification to help them through the process. The Town has offered a number of flexible options to business owners and attendants to ensure that language is not a barrier during any phase of this process.

As of May 6, four businesses have now received a licence. There are currently a number of businesses with incomplete applications. We will continue to work with businesses to bring them into compliance. We encourage any business applicants to contact the Town to work through the application process.

Newmarket Council underwent a lengthy public process, listening to feedback from many organizations and residents representing various perspectives. This feedback was carefully considered and Council put in place the Personal Wellness Establishments bylaw which is now in the implementation stage. We will review the bylaw in a year and implement potential changes based upon what we observe throughout that first year.

For background

In 2021, Council directed the Town of Newmarket’s Licensing Division to complete a comprehensive review of its Body-Rub Parlour By-law. As a result of this review, the Town’s Body-Rub Parlour classification of business was repealed, and a Personal Wellness Establishment (PWE) classification was adopted. To date, Town Staff has:

• Completed an interactive virtual Public Information Center to receive resident and stakeholder feedback
• Participated in a Council Workshop(External link) where 4 options were presented for Council’s consideration
• Received Council’s direction to adopt new regulations for Personal Wellness Establishments and initiated further consultation by
  • Conducting two surveys designed to further engage residents and stakeholders
  • Consulting with a variety of business owners, community advocacy groups and residents
  • Presented an initial draft of the regulations for community input via a Webinar(External link)
• Drafted and presented proposed regulations for Council’s consideration at a Special Committee of the Whole
• Drafted and presented proposed regulations to the Town’s Zoning By-law to introduce the Personal Wellness Establishment classification and to repeal Body-Rub Parlours at a Council meeting

In January 2022, the Town of Newmarket has launched the application process for all business owners who are required to obtain a PWE Business Licence. For a copy of the application and more information on the process, please visit www.newmarket.ca/licensing.