Minden Hills council, at its Oct. 12 meeting, supported in principle the County-led shortterm rental bylaw, as well as a municipal accommodation tax.
County director of planning, Steve Stone, and director of economic development and tourism, Scott Ovell, are making the rounds of lower-tier townships.
After their presentation, mayor Bob Carter commented the bylaw was a culmination of six-plus years of work but, “this (County) council has been relatively aggressive in making sure that not only would we have a bylaw (but one that) would stand the test of time and the test of the legal world.”
He said one of the challenges in the Highlands is “we have absolutely no idea how many short-term rental properties there are. Estimates have started in the hundreds to well over 3,000.” As a result, he said they don’t know how many applications they will get. He said the bylaw eases the load on fire departments, for example, from having to inspect 1,000 to 2,000 properties as there is a self-attestation in the bylaw.
Carter further added they have also been firm that “not one penny of taxpayer dollars should go into this program. In other words, the short-term rental structure should all be paid for by the fees that are collected for the program. This isn’t a money grab. This is something that is required. We’ve all heard complaints, we’ve all heard the issues, and we need to take control of the situation.”
As for the municipal accommodation tax, Carter said money collected could be put towards tourism infrastructure, roads and services, and even housing.
He said he’d like both the STR bylaw and MAT in place for the beginning of the summer tourist season next year.
Ovell said once the short-term rental bylaw goes live, the MAT should kick in as well. “If you don’t do it that way, I would say you’re just leaving money on the table.”