It’s been a short 10 months since the Town of Collingwood fully implemented a new short-term accommodation (STA) licensing program, but staff report it’s already making a big impact.
Since fully launching Collingwood’s new program in January, councillors were told at their Oct. 20 committee of the whole meeting that 23 licences have been issued for short-term rentals with an additional eight applications under review.
The number of active STA units in Collingwood has declined by more than 75% since the launch, from 354 to 87 units. At the same time, long-term rental listings in Collingwood have nearly tripled from 84 to 234. The town’s licensing and compliance officer for bylaw services, Amanda Fone, said this indicates that some properties previously operating as STAs may have transitioned back into the long-term housing market.
Fone shared that all of the complaints received about short-term rentals since January have been for rentals operating without a license, with no complaints received involving short-term rentals operating with a license.
From January to June, there were 86 violation notices issued by the town’s bylaw department regarding short-term rentals. Between June and October, town staff issued 45 penalty notices for marketing without a licence and 38 penalty notices for operating without a licence. Eleven subsequent penalty notices were issued to repeat offenders. Town bylaw staff did 255 proactive investigations this year through the program.
Most complaints involved suspected unlicensed operations, noise, parking and occupancy limits. Investigations typically involve verifying property use, reviewing online listings, interviewing complainants and renters, and conducting site visits to confirm compliance or identify violations.
The town instituted a combination of both proactive and reactive enforcement of the new bylaw. Penalties for non-compliance with the bylaw (whether owners have a licence or not) range between $500 and $2,000 for a first offence, depending on the offence, and revocation of a license is possible as a consequence of repeated offences.
The town also has the ability to go through the provincial court system, and could levy fines up to $100,000 for non-compliance.
Class A licenses cover bed and breakfasts, Class B licences allow residents to rent their entire single-detached dwelling if it is their principal residence, while Class C licences permit property owners to rent an additional residential unit on the same lot as a single-detached dwelling, provided the single-detached dwelling is their principal residence.
So far, Fone said it hasn’t yet been necessary to escalate issues to the Ontario Court of Justice as she said most operators are becoming compliant after initial enforcement measures.
With the final phase of short-term rentals approved by council back in November 2024 and going into effect at the beginning of January, Collingwood’s new short-term rental rules ended a prohibition on such rentals in town. Previous to the change, bylaw staff said the full prohibition led to difficulty monitoring the estimated 400 rentals that continued to operate in town illegally.
Under the new rules, up to 200 licences for short-term rentals will be handed out annually on a first-come-first-served basis. The town hosts an interactive map on its website that shows all registered STAs in Collingwood.
On Monday, Fone acknowledged the uptake on licenses so far has been slower than expected, but town staff were hopeful more applications would come in as the program gains traction.
Clerk Sara Almas, who is also the town’s director of bylaw, said the town has worked with Airbnb and VRBO to improve compliance, beginning with an initial communication sent directly to all hosts in Collingwood outlining the new licensing requirements.
She said Airbnb followed this with email campaigns to hosts in March and April 2025 and additional notifications beginning in July, coinciding with the launch of a new voluntary licence number field on its platform.
The licensing fees to be paid by operators, as well as funds from fines for non-compliance, are intended to fully fund the program and ongoing costs, however, the town is leveraging some funds from the annual parking surplus for up to two years to make sure the program stays revenue-neutral.
At Monday’s meeting, councillors were asked to approve pulling an additional $145,000 from the town’s parking reserve to float the program in 2025, with the staff report noting that the program is not yet revenue-neutral. Council was informed on Monday that $208,000 was pulled from the town’s parking reserve in 2024 to help get the program off the ground.
Funds for next year will be determined through the 2026 budget process, although it was noted during Monday’s meeting that $124,000 will likely be needed to float the program next year. A long-term financial strategy will be established through a further review of the program in 2027.
While town staff had asked for the 2025 difference to be made up by both the parking reserve and taxation, councillors rejected that idea on Monday night through a unanimous vote to have the entire amount taken from the parking reserve.