It’s been a few months since The Telegram ran my plea demanding action from our province in the face of illegal and un-regulated accommodations offerings through online rental platforms such as AirBnB.
These platforms are absolutely essential for the industry to keep up to global markets and technology however the actions of operators not following the laws of this land are not.
As a stakeholder, I’ve continued to reach-out to appropriate agencies in the province in hopes of gaining insight into their progress on the file but still no response from the province which is surprising considering our new minister has by now been well briefed on the file.
Research shows Prince Edward Island has recently legislated a robust and effective enforcement policy designed to protect its industry from those found cheating, not meeting provincial standards in accommodations and safety, not complying with regulations and not paying taxes.
Their legislation is available for review online and it includes fines starting at $1,000. a day for continued non-compliance, and even offers serial offenders 30 days in a small warm room with free food and water to think about their nefarious doings and to correct their lack of social conscience!
I’m told the enforcement laws have been well received and have helped rescue their industry from exactly what we are experiencing.
Our province presently has accommodations industry laws on the books however those laws, for some inexplicable reason, are not enforced unlike the laws governing any other industry in our province. Tourism brings in well over $1.1 billion to our provincial treasury annually and employs nine per cent of our workforce.
I understand how platforms such as AirBnB have been helping operators offer their accommodations and that more accommodations equate to more revenues.
I’ve created a profile on these platforms for our fully-compliant enterprise.
However the delta between perpetuating the problem of non-enforcement and the resulting lost taxes and extreme negative disruption in some regions, the inaccurate statistic gathering such as the very important occupancy rates that drive many programs, the dire impact to many compliant operators and the (so far) intangible damage to the brand of N.L. tourism it all causes to the industry is obviously irreconcilable.
I call on the tourism minister to commit to connecting with stakeholders to hear their perspectives; create effective legislation to enforce our laws as do your colleagues in other branches such as fisheries and transportation and other provinces like P.E.I. do before our tourism sector gets a black-eye that won’t go away and we lose the unique flavour of our province — a flavour celebrated through the very impressive international tourism marketing efforts of the tourism department.
We’ve all worked hard to develop this important industry that pours the third or fourth most coins into our provincial treasury.
It’s no time to lose that revenue stream in the face of the many fiscal challenges that are weighing on us all like hydro-rate hikes, job losses and shrinking communities.
Patrick Monsigneur,
Innkeeper, The Claddagh Inn,
St. Mary’s
