Owners of short-term rental properties in Timmins have a new online tool to comply with updated legislation from the city.
Since a new bylaw came into effect in January, 2025, all short-term rental property owners must register with the city as a business and charge a 4% municipal accommodation (MAT) tax on short-term stays, to be submitted to the city monthly.
On Monday, the city announced the launch of an online platform by Granicus (a short-term rental compliance solution) where owners can apply for a business license, register their rental, and submit license fees and MAT payments.
A license is valid for a period of one year. The yearly license fee is pro-rated if a new application is received after Jan. 1.
Granicus also provides the city’s bylaw officers with tools to locate short-term rental listings, verify registrations, and confirm that MAT payments are being properly remitted.
“Granicus uses real-time data from short-term rental listings to cross reference addresses and rental properties, and then confirm if those locations are registered,” explained Amanda Dyer with the City of Timmins.
“Enforcement services can then gather property owner information and reach out to facilitate compliance.”
The by-law passed in January aims to provide municipal oversight on vacation rentals for periods of fewer than 28 consecutive days. It means these rentals will now have to follow the city’s property and occupancy standards and health and safety regulations.
The expansion of the MAT tax is expected to increase potential funding for profit and not-for-profit tourism initiatives, as well as outreach services and the city’s safety improvement grant, which are funded through the municipal portion of the tax.
The MAT Tax is a 4% tax applied to accommodation for a period of fewer than 30 consecutive days. Previous to the new bylaw, it only applied to hotels, motels, lodges, inns and bed and breakfasts.
The MAT tax initially took effect in 2019 with the province’s passage of Bill 127, the “Stronger Healthier Ontario Act,” and is intended to provide municipalities with more revenue for tourism in both the public and not-for-profit sectors.
Half of the net revenue goes to eligible tourism applicants, and the other half goes to a reserve fund to be used as city council directs.
The half allocated to MATT (municipal accommodations tourism tax) grants to tourism is governed by the Timmins Economic Development Corporation (TEDC), which runs a committee that fields requests from applicants.
In 2024, the TEDC distributed $741,250 to 30 tourism entities. Those MATT grants “leveraged” $919,000 in additional grants for recipient organizations. Sources of additional revenue could be sponsorships, fundraisers or the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation.
Economic impact on the community of Timmins is calculated using the “Tourism Regional Economic Impact Model” (TREIM), a data analysis simulation tool.
Based on the TREIM report, the economic impact of 2024 MATT grants on the City of Timmins is over $6.5 million.
Rinaldo calls that “conservative,” because it is based on ‘heads in beds,’— hotel guests— and excludes visitors coming from neighbouring towns who are also eating in restaurants and shopping during their stay.
She added it is easier to measure economic impact from organized sporting events than concerts.
She has heard many recipients say the MATT grant has allowed volunteer-run events to continue. Rinaldo said there are fewer of such events now than in the past.
“If you can give them a little bit to prompt them to keep on going, I think that makes a difference because you want them to grow the event,” Rinaldo said, adding their expenses, such as venues, security and insurance, keep rising, and have to be paid for up front.
“If they don’t have money in the bank, it’s going to get tougher and tougher.”
Rinaldo will report on economic spinoffs of the MATT grant at a future Timmins City Council meeting.
The City is encouraging all short-term rental property owners to complete their registration now through the online platform. Over the next 60 days, enforcement services will begin contacting property owners directly who are not in compliance.