Dysart et al council has decided to set its pending municipal accommodation tax, or MAT, at 2%. Meanwhile, the townships of Algonquin Highlands, Highlands East and Minden Hills have opted for 4%. In doing so, the three have accepted the recommendation of the County’s director of economic development and tourism, Scott Ovell.
Ovell knows a thing or two about the MAT tax, as he does about short-term rental bylaws. He was the economic development coordinator for the Town of Huntsville, which adopted a MAT about six years ago – incidentally at 4%.
While Ovell has fallen short of calling it an industry standard when he made the recent rounds of councils, he did say 95% of Ontario municipalities have gone with that 4% figure.
Dysart Mayor Murray Fearrey said while he supported the 4% at the outset, he started to think about it, worrying Dysart was piling too much tax onto people.
Coun. Pat Casey, naturally, agreed with his mayor. The businessman said he’s worried about discretionary income being eroded. The township doesn’t want to kill the entrepreneurial spirit of someone making a dollar. After all, money is often reinvested into the community via cottage renos and downtown shopping, he said.
Coun. Pam Sayne made a good point at Minden Hills’ meeting on the MAT tax, saying townships cannot run deficits, but with provincial downloading and rising infrastructure costs, they need other sources of revenue to stay afloat.