While Algonquin Highlands, Highlands East and Minden Hills have supported the new bylaw at a 4% tax rate, Dysart has opted to introduce it at 2%.
Of the 30 or so municipalities in Ontario to embrace a MAT, most have done so at 4%. City of Niagara Falls introduced a 2% MAT in 2022.
Scott Ovell, the County’s director of economic development and tourism, had estimated the MAT could boost municipal coffers County-wide by more than $2 million per year at a 4%. He noted at least 50% of revenues must be allocated to eligible non-profit tourism operators. The County is investigating setting up a municipal services corporation (MSC) to handle those funds.
Townships would be free to utilize the remaining 50% where they want, Ovell said.
Referencing data from the Ministry of Tourism, collected via short-term rental operators like Airbnb and Vrbo, Ovell said there were more than 150,000 nightly stays in the County in 2023 – up more than 90% from 2019. Mayor Murray Fearrey felt those numbers represented peak STR usage in the Highlands and that revenues would be down for most operators this year.
Coun. Pat Casey agreed with Fearrey.
“Everyone’s discretionary income is slowly getting eroded and we don’t want to kill the entrepreneurial spirit of someone making a dollar,” Casey said, noting that money is often reinvested into the community via cottage renovations and downtown shopping.
The MAT is expected to begin Oct. 1. It will be handled by Granicus, an international firm specializing in digital communications and government services, which will also oversee the County’s short-term rental bylaw.