With summer’s tourist boom looming large, Tofino is reminding property owners and visitors that illegal vacation rentals will not be tolerated.
The district put out an announcement last week expressing concern over the impacts illegal tourist accommodations are having on the local housing supply and suggesting legal action has and will be taken against those choosing to continue ignoring local laws.
The announcement notes that the district took property owners at South Chesterman Beach Homes to the Supreme Court of B.C. in 2018 and won the decision, confirming that a business licence is required to operate a tourist accommodation business in town.
“The District has taken steps to enforce its bylaws regarding unlawful tourist accommodation businesses including issuing bylaw notice tickets and commencing injunction proceedings,” the announcement reads. “Recently, the District filed a claim in B.C. Supreme Court against a SCBH owner to enforce its bylaws for carrying on the business of providing their SCBH property for accommodation to tourists and other guests for non-residential stays, including temporary stays of less than one month, in exchange for payment, without a business licence. The District and the SCBH owner have signed a consent order, which includes an order requiring the owner to cease carrying on the tourist accommodation business on their SCBH property without a business licence.”
Tofino Mayor Dan Law told the Westerly News that the district will continue to proactively enforce its bylaws around tourist accommodations operating anywhere in the district.
“Council has prioritized residential housing. We know that we need to increase our housing supply for residents. We need to protect the existing housing supply and we need to make and enforce bylaws to ensure that homes and suites that are intended for residential use are, in fact, being used for that purpose,” he said. “Enforcing unlawful tourist accommodations businesses is one aspect of protecting and preserving and hopefully increasing our residential stock.”
He added that Tofino has been cracking down on illegal vacation rentals for the past several years and its efforts have yielded success.
“We’ve seen a dramatic improvement,” he said. “The vast majority of short term rentals in Tofino are compliant now, so that’s been a success. We still have maybe less than 10 per cent of the known short term rentals that are non-compliant, but that number is decreasing and certainly every win we get gets the message out that this is something that the district is prioritizing and tackling and will be tackling and we will be successful.”
He acknowledged that enforcement comes at a cost, noting a dramatic increase to business licence fees for vacation rentals in 2018.
“The cost of enforcement, certainly going to the Supreme Court, is one of the reasons that the cost of a tourist accommodation business licence in Tofino is so high now,” he said. “That is something that our town has to realize. This takes effort and it takes money.”
He added that many residents rely on income from legal short-term rentals to be able to afford to live in Tofino.
“This isn’t about penalizing those people who are following the rules and making an income that they need to keep their home. This really is about cracking down on all those who are flaunting the system and trying to get away with breaking our bylaws,” he said.
“We’re doing many things all at once. Our intention is to tackle the problem of housing in many ways and, at the same time, we do value those residents who own homes and require the income from their short term rental to be able to stay in their home in Tofino. We do value those people who are abiding by our bylaws and are responsible residents and business owners.”
He suggested the district is lobbying the province for increased enforcement capabilities on illegal accommodations and he’s hoping to see stricter penalties for those repeatedly ignoring local laws.
“My hope is that, at some point with repeat offenders, owners and operators knowingly flaunting the system, that we can transfer those fines to property taxation. That’s my personal hope, but we’ll see what the province says,” he said.
He added the district is building affordable housing projects through the Tofino Housing Corporation and that council is prioritizing private developments that offer rental market or residential ownership housing.
He said council has also asked district staff to review Tofino’s current business licensing bylaws to further prioritize residential housing over short-term rentals.
He added there will likely never be enough housing supply to meet the rising demand and that there must be a variety of housing options for a diverse community to thrive before space runs out.
“This is not a one-shot cure-all. There is no magic bullet, especially for places that more people want to live in than can live in,” he said. “In Tofino, Ucluelet, anywhere that’s really a desirable place to live, the demand is always going to exceed the ability for the town to deliver. That’s just the way it is. There’s always going to be incredible pressure on towns like Tofino and Ucluelet to keep building and growing and at some point it has to slow down and at some point it has to stop. That’s just a reality that people have to grasp.
“Council understands that we have to have all demographics living in Tofino. It can’t be simply for those who have the most money or ability. That’s why we have to prioritize affordable housing, below market housing, price restricted and resident restricted units because, at the end of the day, we are a real community that consists of all types and abilities of people. We have to keep that at the core of our thinking.”
andrew.bailey@westerlynews.ca
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