Despite a last-minute groundswell of opposition to a shortterm rental bylaw, County councillors have pledged to continue on the path of ensuring rules and regulations are in place for the spring.
Jacqueline Baptist, a STR operator in Algonquin Highlands, made a delegation to County council Jan. 10 and warden Liz Danielsen said councillors had received a number of recent emails calling on them to revisit plans.
Baptist said she believed council would agree with her that STRs contribute to the local economy and employment. She added, “STRs have become an essential part of the accommodator landscape in Haliburton County, [with an] estimated 77 per cent of accommodation units.”
She said while they should be regulated and safe, problem renters should be fined under existing bylaws, and, “a successful bylaw will be the one that is complied with.”
Baptist said her research indicates the average Haliburton County host is “not an investor or fat cat,” earning $9,000 in annual rental income, renting less than 50 nights a year, and paying income tax via GST.
She further estimated that hosting contributes $50-millionplus to the economy annually, with an estimate based on 1,350 STRs, with four guests over 50 nights. She added renters spend money on groceries, restaurants and attractions and there are jobs for cleaners, maintenance and groundskeeping.
She said hosts were asking the County to pause approval and implantation until a Tiny township case is heard to avoid potential legal action. They then want a phased-in approach; in year one registering all STRs, monitoring problem properties and enforcing existing noise, fire, fireworks and septic bylaws. In year two, they want consideration of “cumbersome, expensive, discriminatory” aspects of the bylaw, “namely shoreline road allowance purchase, a municipal accommodation tax on STRs only, providing older and seasonal buildings meet all building code, fire code, electricity act, planning and municipal bylaws and WETT and septic inspections within three years.”
Claims no consultation ‘laughable’
Danielsen said after receiving correspondence on the file the past month or so, she wanted to ensure all councillors were on the same page in proceeding with a bylaw. Council also received a legal opinion in closed session.
Coun. Bob Carter said, “we have over 20,000 people in Haliburton County and we’ve got about 100 pieces of correspondence, most of which seems to have been centrally orchestrated because they use the same turn of phrase. You see the same paragraphs in many of them.”
He added, “we’ve been working at this for six years or more. It’s laughable when people think there hasn’t been enough public consultation. People are saying ‘we never had a chance to talk to you about it,’ well, yeah, you did. I think we need to be going at this to get this in place by this spring.”
Coun. Cec Ryall agreed, noting council has pledged to review the bylaw in a reasonable timeframe and make any changes deemed necessary. “As long as we’re going to do that, we have that safety hitch in place for anything not working the way we thought it would. We’re doing this the right way, with a fair amount of due diligence, as much as we can, to put some safety in there. This is very dynamic and important to the people we represent.”
Coun. Murray Fearrey wasn’t convinced by Baptist’s math. He said he knows some renters making $25,000-a-month and others $10,000-a-week. He also said the argument that it is going to be too onerous – meeting fire, safety and septic rules – doesn’t fly for him. He also said the townships do not have the staff to be going to STR call-outs in the middle of the night to enforce existing bylaws.
“I think our approach was right. It was well orchestrated and organized.”
He conceded Baptist made some good points but, “we’re way past going back and starting over, it’s time we moved on.”
