Dear editor:

I am writing with regard to the article regarding the municipal accommodation tax in the April 13 edition of The Lake Report, “Room tax could collect additional $600,000 from short-term rentals.”

Until May of last year my wife and I owned a five-bedroom country inn here in town. When the accommodation tax was under discussion last year, I wrote a couple of letters to the editor expressing my objection.

I believe at that time there was talk of it bringing in $1 million, of which 50 per cent would go to the town and the other half to the Chamber of Commerce.

I see now that only $200,000 has been raised (though the town projects another $600,000 could be generated if all short-term rentals were subject to the tax).

The article mentions that country inns are considered four-bedrooms and up but the tax only applies to five and up, even though both are considered country inns.

Of 255 short term rentals examined last year by The Lake Report, only 12 would be affected.

Coun. Gary Burroughs says the law was not applied to smaller short-term rentals as it was too complicated for those folks. Coun. Wendy Cheopita says most smaller B&Bs are run by couples trying to supplement their income and don’t have staff.

In my letters to the editor I did comment that the separation of four- and five-room country inns made no sense. I also said the number of short-term rentals affected would not make a huge monetary difference.

Our country inn was run by my wife and myself. No staff. Apparently five-bedroom owners have the mental capability to handle the tax that three-bedroom owners do not.

Coun. Cheropita suggested the tax collection could be done by a third party. I would assume that a third party would want some pay for doing that. How much of the money collected would go to pay that?

David Levesque, former president of the NOTL Bed & Breakfast Association, stated that the management system used by most B&Bs are not capable of calculating the tax.

We used Quickbooks, so it would just be another item to insert. Coun. Burroughs also pointed out that B&Bs do not have to report their finances to the town.

Even though we are not in the accommodation business any more I still think it is an ill-advised tax from the revenue miscalculation, the unfair application to only a small number of accommodation providers, the process of collecting and the idea that four-bedroom operations and below don’t have the capability to calculate the tax.

I would agree with Coun. Burroughs that the verification would be difficult to enforce as I believe only Revenue Canada has access to my finances.

I presume this would have all been thought out much better before introducing it. And introducing this before the tourism plan was developed makes no sense.

My last point is that I don’t understand why the accommodation industry should be the only one to have this tax applied so that tourism can be promoted. Do the wineries, theatres, retailers and the other businesses in town not benefit from tourism yet don’t have to collect the tax?

A bad idea handled badly.

Doug Johnson
Virgil