Sunshine Coast Tourism (SCT) is nearly ready to apply for the Municipal and Regional District Tax (MRDT), also known as the hotel tax, although there are still some who question the accountability of the SCT.
“The tax needs to be controlled by the people that are paying the tax – that’s the bottom line,” Bed and Breakfast owner Colin MacLean said. “Sunshine Coast Tourism does not want to give up that control.”
MacLean is the vice president of the Sunshine Coast Accommodators Association (SCAA), a group opposing the proposed structure of the MRDT.
Bob Crosby, SCT director and owner of the Driftwood Inn in Sechelt, said giving more weight to the accommodation sector votes hasn’t been successful in most other small communities around B.C. that have adopted the MRDT.
“It turned out to not really be in the best operating interests of most of those areas,” Crosby said. “It’s just a more balanced system where you’ve got representatives from say, Sunshine Coast Tours – so you’re covering other tourism sectors.”
The MRDT is an additional two per cent tax on tourist accommodations. Proponents are forecasting that it could bring in $250,000 annually for the tourism industry on the Sunshine Coast.
SCT is waiting on one last letter of support from the shíshálh Nation. Once it has that, the application – along with letters of support from all of the local governments on the
Sunshine Coast – will be sent to the Ministry of Tourism.
More than 50 communities in B.C. have already adopted the hotel tax. Crosby is concerned that this puts the Sunshine Coast at a disadvantage.
“At the moment I think that all the areas surrounding us collect it, we’re kind of the lone one here that doesn’t,” Crosby said. “That puts us at a big disadvantage in terms of marketing dollars.”
Crosby estimated that the split among accommodation operators is about 55 per cent in favour and 45 per cent opposed to the hotel tax.
“In general, the opposition seems to be centred mainly in Gibsons,” Crosby said. “The majority in Sechelt are in favour and certainly the majority in Powell River.”
SCT president Celia Robben said she couldn’t give out any official numbers on how many accommodators are for or against the MRDT. The numbers, she said, are still changing every day.
“All I can say is that I wouldn’t turn in an application unless I had a majority in the sector,” Robben said. “I believe there are 51 eligible accommodations on the Sunshine Coast.”
Developer of the proposed George Hotel and Residences project in Gibsons, Klaus Fuerniss, also expressed concerns about the MRDT. Fuerniss said he is in favour of the tax, but questioned the balance of SCT directors responsible for deciding how the money generated by the MRDT would be spent.
“As a bottom line, we need to make sure there is a structure in place that will benefit the industry overall,” Fuerniss said.
“[Fuerniss] hasn’t really been involved in any of the conversations right now, mostly because he doesn’t have a hotel yet,” Robben said.
MacLean has also been left out of SCT conversations about the MRDT since most B&Bs – his included – would not be eligible for the MRDT.
“We are a bed and breakfast but we’re also an association which represents the petitioners from 2012 who were against the MRDT – and they’re all eligible people,” MacLean said.
The SCT board of directors has four out of 11 spaces reserved for members of the accommodation sector. According to Robben, there are plans in place to create an eight-person advisory committee that would give direct input to the SCT marketing team as to how the money generated by the MRDT would be spent.
“No other sector of the tourism industry is going to be [represented] on that committee,” Robben said. “For me, that’s really allowing the hotel sector to take part.”
MacLean said the SCT had trouble filling those four seats at their annual general meeting in 2014.
“Those are positions that actually have voting rights,” MacLean said. “If they’re having trouble filling four voting positions, how in the world do they expect to fill an eight-member team that has no voting rights?”
