Nearly three quarters of the attendees of the Alberta Municipalities convention in Calgary last week voted in support of a municipal accommodation tax – giving municipalities the option to tax hotel and short-term rental guests. It will also allow them to choose how the money is collected, and where it is allocated to.
“We are in desperate need of additional revenue tools in order to better serve our residents and the visitors,” said Sean Krausert, the mayor of Canmore.
Both the mayors of Jasper and Canmore say their municipalities are struggling financially to provide services because they can tax their permanent residents, but not the many visitors who also benefit from said services.
“Of course we need those visitors to sustain our economy, but when over 30 per cent of our expenditures are focused on visitors, we need some access from them to help fund that,” said Jasper Mayor Richard Ireland.
Krausert hopes the provincial government allows the tax to come into effect, with a focus on accommodation providers.
“The burden would be lifted from Albertans living in these communities who are otherwise subsidizing the experience of visitors,” he said.
Alternatively, Jasper Mayor Richard Ireland would prefer an overall, value-added tax to not specifically target accommodations. He says that visitors utilize many other services which are also costly.
“Recycling, for example, and other waste disposal — that is a real challenge. But also, maintaining our roads, our other infrastructure which is entirely visitor facing, or at least disproportionately visitor facing, would be such a benefit,” he said.
Ireland adds that accommodation is a crucial industry in Jasper, and that specifically taxing this sector could deter visitors from staying in the municipality.