BIA 101

BIAs first emerged in 1970 – in Toronto actually – as well as in Los Angeles. In the late 1960’s, Toronto’s inner city was struggling with suburban sprawl as commuting cars began to fill up once vital commercial streets. A few volunteer merchant associations existed but they were not very successful, since budgets tended to be minimal. Street-front commercial areas were suffering as malls were increasing in popularity.

Bloor Street West merchants got together to look into how they could compete with “the mall.” They found that all mall tenants were required to contribute Common Area Maintenance Fees, which were used for promotions to draw in customers. They then worked with City of Toronto to develop a special BIA levy – so that individual merchants could pool their resources in a similar way, and create effective marketing programs.

What is a BIA?

Business Improvement Associations are self-funded, self governing, grassroots organizations which operate within in a defined geographic area. The City assists and oversees interested merchant communities with formalized start up procedures. Once a BIA is formed, it is managed by a volunteer board of property owners and tenants, which uses BIA funds to hire staff and implement BIA activities.

BIA Funding

BIAs obtain funding through a special property levy, much like a Local Improvement Levy. The City has an ongoing role: facilitating the annual funding process, collecting the levy from individual businesses on our behalf and remitting to the BIA Board annually following member approval of draft annual budgets, and monitoring annual budgets.