In a recent poll, about half of Newfoundland and Labrador residents indicated support for rented private residences being taxed and regulated in the same manner as other paid accommodations in the province.
The information was gathered in a Corporate Research Associates Inc. survey.
The poll showed similar level of support in Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia.
Online accommodations booking services, such as Airbnb, are commonly used to rent privately owned houses, apartments, or other residences. There has been recent debate surrounding whether or not these accommodations should be taxed and regulated to follow the same standards as other paid accommodations, such as hotels and motels, a news release states.
Across Atlantic Canada, support in Newfoundland and Labrador for rented private residences being taxed and regulated in the same manner as other paid accommodations is similar to support in Prince Edward Island (53 per cent) and Nova Scotia (50 per cent), but is higher compared to support in New Brunswick (42 per cent).
Across the population of Newfoundland and Labrador, support for these accommodations having the same taxes and regulations is elevated among residents with higher household incomes.
“There continues to be considerable public debate related to the treatment of privately rented accommodations in Canada in terms of both taxation and regulation,” said Don Mills, Chairman and CEO of Corporate Research Associates. “In Newfoundland and Labrador, residents are more likely than not to support both the regulation and taxation of such accommodations in the same manner as other commercial accommodations.”
These results are based on a telephone sample of 383 adult Newfoundland and Labrador residents, conducted from Nov. 2 to 30, 2017, with overall results accurate to within ± 5.0 percentage points, 95 out of 100 times.