Shooting in Vancouver: City and Park Board permits
Two offices issue film permits: the City's Film and Special Events branch (streets, sidewalks, plazas) and the Park Board's Film and Special Events office (parks and the adjoining seawall), as the City's types of film permits explain.
- Triggers. A standard permit and insurance apply when a shoot goes beyond a hand-held camera, a tripod or hand-held items like bounce boards and boom mics, needs street parking for production vehicles, or takes exclusive use of City property. The film permits page also refers to a "letter in lieu of a film permit" for activities meeting set criteria; ask the branch whether yours qualifies.
- Street fee. Under the City's filming fees, streets, sidewalks and plazas cost $1,300 per filming day before tax; still photo shoots and other "ultra-low impact" productions (under 15 people, minimal equipment and parking, no traffic control, no diesel generator) get 85% off the daily fee.
- Park fees. Park Board rates for 2026 go from $268 (neighbourhood park, level 1) to $2,838 (premium park, level 4), before tax.
- Insurance, licence. The City's filming guidelines (PDF) require proof of $5,000,000 in general liability insurance naming the City, ten business days ahead, and the Park Board's application form (PDF) sets the same minimum. A production based outside the city needs a $137 temporary filming business licence.
- Drones and other towns. Transport Canada regulates drones. Outside Vancouver each municipality handles its own permits; Creative BC's BC Film Commission lists the permit contacts.
Those offices, not Empire, decide whether a shoot needs a permit, and a permit covers logistics only: Criminal Code sections 173 (indecent acts) and 174 (nudity) still apply. We organize no shoots in Vancouver; ours happen in Mexico City.
Staying unfindable in Vancouver
- Location blocks. Blocking works by country and, in Canada, also by province where OnlyFans offers it; we check your account's settings with you. A block also hides you from paying fans there, and a VPN gets around it.
- Telltale backgrounds. North Shore mountains in a window, a SkyTrain sign, the SeaBus terminal, a concierge desk or one bridge from one angle can pin you to a few blocks. Review each frame, including on the social profiles that feed your page.
- Strata common areas. The gym, rooftop or lobby of a strata building isn't yours alone; ask before shooting there.
- Balconies. Under section 174 of the Criminal Code, being nude and exposed to public view on private property, even your own, without lawful excuse is an offence (charges need the Attorney General's consent). If a neighbour's window faces your balcony, treat it as public view.
- Chatters say nothing. The contract bars them from revealing or hinting at your real name, address, routine or family.
Vancouver's clock no longer moves
B.C. sprang forward for the last time on March 8, 2026. Section 26 of the Interpretation Act now sets Pacific Time at seven hours behind UTC for every reference to time in the province, in force since March 9, 2026 under B.C. Reg. 20/2026 (table of legislative changes). According to the province's March 2 announcement, the enabling law passed in 2019 but was held back to coordinate with U.S. states in the same zone; B.C. went ahead alone, so clocks stay put on November 1, 2026. Since September the official abbreviation is PCT (Gov News, September 17).
Mexico City has had no seasonal change since its 2022 reform: the federal time law (in Spanish) limits it to the northern border, leaving the capital on UTC−6. So the gap with our coordinators is now fixed:
Vancouver vs. Mexico City (IANA tz database, release 2026e)
| Period | Vancouver | Mexico City | At 8:00 p.m. in Vancouver |
| Up to Mar 7, 2026 | PST (UTC−8) | UTC−6 | 10:00 p.m. there |
| Since Mar 8, 2026 | PCT (UTC−7) | UTC−6 | 9:00 p.m. there |
Your fans' 9 p.m., on your clock
Fans' countries still switch, so these gaps move on their calendars:
Converted with the IANA tz database, release 2026e
| Fan's location | Their winter | Their summer |
| Eastern (New York, Miami, Toronto) | 7:00 p.m. (Nov 1, 2026 – Mar 13, 2027) | 6:00 p.m. (Mar 14 – Nov 6, 2027) |
| Central (Chicago, Houston, Dallas) | 8:00 p.m. | 7:00 p.m. |
| U.S. Pacific (Seattle, Portland) | 10:00 p.m. (Vancouver one hour ahead) | 9:00 p.m. (same time) |
| London | 2:00 p.m. (Oct 25, 2026 – Mar 27, 2027) | 1:00 p.m. (Mar 28 – Oct 30, 2027) |
| Paris, Madrid | 1:00 p.m. | Noon |
European dates follow the last Sundays of March and October (GOV.UK: October 25, 2026; March 28, 2027). So East Coast evenings arrive around your dinner, European nights in your early afternoon; the shifts cover all of it, and mass messages get scheduled with an explicit time zone.
One date to watch: November 1, 2026. The IANA database behind phones and calendar apps added B.C.'s change in release 2026b (April 2026; release notes) and, from November 1, labels it "MST", same UTC−7. A device with older time-zone data could still fall back that night, so check your phone's clock before scheduling around it.
What the spending estimates say about Vancouver
OnlyFans publishes no city figures. The ones quoted come from OnlyGuider, a creator search engine, which models them from the accounts of Fenix International (the UK parent company) and Google search data. They estimate fan spending by place, not where creators live or what anyone earns.
OnlyGuider, OnlyFans Wrapped 2026: Canadian cities (US dollars)
| City | Dec 2025 – Nov 2026 | Per 10,000 adults |
| Vancouver | $5.59 million | $103,706 |
| Calgary | $9.61 million | $95,231 |
| Toronto | $22.52 million | $94,380 |
| Montreal | $12.36 million | $86,255 |
| Ottawa | $5.50 million | $66,382 |
In OnlyFans Wrapped 2026 (updated August 31, 2026), Vancouver ranks 67th of 98 cities by total, down 6.2%, but 43rd of 97 per adult and first among the five Canadian cities; the report lists it third among its sharpest per-person declines, behind Hong Kong and Ottawa. The superseded 2025 edition (updated May 11, 2026) had US$9,596,400 for 2025 (54th of 100) and US$144,906 per 10,000 residents (24th, again top in Canada). Methods and denominators differ, so don't compare the two editions directly; neither says where your own subscribers are.
For scale: Statistics Canada estimates 740,454 residents in the City of Vancouver (table 17-10-0155-01) and 3,088,036 in the Vancouver census metropolitan area (table 17-10-0148-01) on July 1, 2025; BC Stats shows the same figures and 3,087,023 for the Metro Vancouver regional district.
Getting paid by OnlyFans, and paying Empire from B.C.
OnlyFans' Terms of Service: its fee is 20% of each fan payment, all amounts are in U.S. dollars, and earnings go out through the Payout Option you choose; your bank or e-wallet may add conversion or other charges, relevant if you bank in Canadian dollars. The options open to a B.C. resident show in the account's Banking section; we review them with you, and the destination account is yours.
We steer clear of Wise and Payoneer for this income: Wise's acceptable use policy excludes adult content and pornography, and Payoneer's list of prohibited transactions names pay-per-view and pornographic or mature-audience material. A rejected payment or a closed account is the risk.
Your earnings never pass through Empire. After each monthly cut-off you get, within 5 business days, a report showing the commission calculation (on top of the weekly results report). It counts only money OnlyFans has released to you; amounts on hold wait for the cut-off where they're freed. You then pay in U.S. dollars, by ACH or wire from a U.S. bank account in your own name, into the ARQ account (formerly DolarApp) of Panther Management Group. ARQ's help centre states it receives only ACH and domestic U.S. wires, with no SWIFT, so a cross-border transfer from a Canadian bank or credit union would not land. Without a U.S. account in your name, we agree the payment route with you before you sign. Account details come with each report.
Rates by monthly net: 30% below US$1,000; 25% from US$1,000 to US$2,999.99; 20% at US$3,000 and above. The tier reached applies to the entire month, and only net counts, never what fans paid gross:
Examples in US dollars
| Fans paid | Net after OnlyFans' 20% | Commission | Left for you |
| $1,100 | $880 | 30% = $264 | $616 |
| $1,250 | $1,000 | 25% = $250 | $750 |
| $3,700 | $2,960 | 25% = $740 | $2,220 |
| $3,750 | $3,000 | 20% = $600 | $2,400 |
| $8,000 | $6,400 | 20% = $1,280 | $5,120 |
Compare the third and fourth lines: US$2,960 of net leaves you US$2,220, while US$3,000 leaves US$2,400, since 20% then covers the whole month. Our commission calculator (in Spanish) does this arithmetic for any figure.
Illustrations of the arithmetic, not a forecast or a promise of income.