Town of Osoyoos council will send letters to the provincial government supporting a request from the Osoyoos Hotel and Motel Association (OHMA) to try and mitigate the negative impacts of short term nightly rentals in Osoyoos.

Barry Romanko, the Town’s Chief Administrative Officer, told members of council on Monday that “It is a known fact that many property owners illegally rent out their single family units for summer accommodation.

“The result of this action is an unfair business environment between the illegal operators and the hoteliers.”

Illegal operators are able to offer reduced rates due to not charging taxes, he said.

“The result is not only an unfair business environment, but also creates a shortage of rental space for employees who are needed to service the tourism industry,” said Romanko.

These illegal rentals has caused negatively affected parties to encourage municipal enforcement and the Town to attempt enforcement with limited or no success, he said.

“The lack of success is in part due to the extreme amount of evidence that must be produced to support enforcement actions, the high amount of resources that are needed to achieve any level of success and the lack of co-operation of people who are using these rental units,” said Romanko. “This issue has been heightened by the blossoming practice of using online services of AirBnB and Vacation Rentals by Owner (VRBO) to broker tourism accommodation.”

The illegal use of single family units is not only an “Osoyoos problem”, but one that has become commonplace to resort municipalities across British Columbia, he said.

“Over the past three years, there has been efforts by resort municipalities to encourage the provincial and federal governments to assist, through legislation, changes in tax laws to even the tax environment with businesses that provide tourism accommodation,” he said. “The latest efforts occurred at the 2016 Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) when discussions occurred between provincial ministers and representatives from resort municipalities.”

Town council had received a letter from the OHMA as well as from a committee that was formed to represent resort municipalities in dealing with future Resort Municipality Initiative (RMI) funding and related RMI issues, said Romanko.

The OHMA letter asks council to send a letter to provincial government ministers requestion Provincial Tax Regulations be rescinded and the other letter asked council to sign a letter from the resort municipality committee asking the province to re-examine property assessment legislation to better fit the current practice of renting single family units.

Rescinding the current tax regulation “would result in tourism operators with less than four units losing their tax exemption from hotel and local Municipal and Regional Development Tax (MRDT) taxes.

“The requirement to pay these taxes would result in more accurate identification of rental income that would also affect income taxes and the municipalities’ ability to impose business taxes on these operators. The ultimate result is a common tax environment for tourist accommodation. This change would affect bed and breakfast operators and renters of single family units.”

The OHMA letter to council says illegal rentals have hit their business hard.

“We understand the Town of Osoyoos has been working to mitigate the negative impacts of short term nightly rentals to our community,” states the letter. “We strongly support these efforts and commend council for their leadership on this issue.

“However, we understand that the town’s resources are stretched and that meaningful action from the provincial government is required to resolve this issue in a timely manner.

“The Osoyoos accommodators have experienced continual challenges over the past year with assisting new and existing employees to local affordable monthly rental accommodation. The vacancy rate is at zero in the peak months and in many cases our members have lost existing and potential employees due to this chronic rental shortage. Making matters worse, there are no indications this trend will change in the years ahead.

“As council knows, many British Columbians have embraced short-term residential rental companies such as AirBnB and VRBO. While these online platforms may have in some cases brought new visitors to B.C., they have also negatively impacted the availability and affordability of monthly rental accommodations. One of the challenges is that these agencies are not subject to the same regulators, legal, taxation, health and safety or insurance laws as traditional accommodation providers.”

Mayor Sue McKortoff said “this is quite a big issue” in the community at this time and she strongly supported sending the letters.

There should be a level playing field for anyone who rents out their residences to tourists, said McKortoff.

Council voted unanimously in favour of sending the letters.

KEITH LACEY

Osoyoos Times