Tofino’s municipal council wrapped up one of the most heavily anticipated and divisive decisions of their current term with a surprising twist on Tuesday, going against their staff’s recommendation and voting in favour of opting in to new provincial legislation around short term rentals.
A key aspect of opting in is the principal residence requirement, which dominated the discussion at a public open house event on Feb. 12 where owners of units at Tofino’s Fred Tibbs and Eik Landing buildings urged council to take more time before making a decision.
A petition was launched the following day calling on the district to allow residents to make the decision through an assent vote or referendum and that petition had reached nearly 600 signatures at the time of Tuesday’s council vote.
Resort municipalities, including Tofino and Ucluelet, were exempt from the provincial legislation, but had the option of opting in by a March 31 deadline.
Tofino’s neighbour Ucluelet elected not to opt in this year with Ucluelet’s municipal council voting unanimously in favour of their staff’s recommendation to wait at least a year to allow for further investigation into the legislation and see how the new regulations play out in other communities.
While Ucluelet’s decision to wait was made swiftly and somewhat under-the-radar, Tofino’s conversation about whether or not to opt in yielded divisive discourse over the past three months and Tuesday’s conversation showed it also created a clear rift between the town’s council and staff.
Prior to Tofino council’s 5-2 vote in favour of opting in, District CAO Nyla Attiana presented a report to council recommending they defer the decision to an upcoming zoning bylaw review.
That report and recommendation clearly frustrated Coun. Duncan McMaster, who accused the district’s staff of misleading council.
“Just over two weeks ago in this very room, our CAO assured council that staff would present a report on Bill-35 with no staff recommendations and that council would make any decisions,” McMaster said. “Here we are today with the promised staff report and a staff recommendation. I feel aggrieved and I also feel that staff has misled council.”
McMaster was the first councillor to speak after Attiana’s presentation and immediately made a motion to opt in to the new legislation, finding a seconder in Coun. Kat Thomas who seemed equally, if not more, frustrated by staff’s report.
McMaster’s motion surprised several councillors, who seemed to have expected a conversation about Attiana’s recommendation.
“Normally we discuss a little bit beforehand, but we’re going right in the motion,” said Mayor Dan Law.
McMaster said he had read the letters council received from residents, attended the recent open house event as well as a series of roundtables on the topic.
“Despite the vitriol expounded by a few, one thing is clear: Tofino is special. However, Tofino is not unique in avoiding the housing crisis present in Canada as well as the western world,” McMaster said. “Not only is there a risk of a generation of people never being able to afford a home, but also the strong possibility of Tofino turning into a short term rental ghetto…The most affordable housing we have is our present housing stock. We must ensure that housing is reserved for people to actually live in.”
McMaster argued against Attiana’s belief that the issue would be best hashed out during the district’s upcoming zoning bylaw review, expressing doubt that any significant progress would be made.
“In the 13 years I’ve been on council, there’s been no success in changing zoning either because of the threat of legal actions or staff negativity,” he said.
“Is this bill perfect? Definitely not, but it is a start and provides an enforceable baseline upon which all future short term rental revisions can be built.”
McMaster spoke to claims made during the open house that Eik Landing and Fred Tibbs owners would let their units sit empty, rather than rent long-term if council opted in, cautioning that those owners could face tax implications.
“Some may sell, possibly to locals or out of towners. Some of those out of towners may actually move here. Some will prefer to leave their homes vacant. They have that right, however, be warned; I believe that council will be advocating for Tofino to be included in the provincial empty home tax,” he said.
He added that while he agreed with the argument that opting in would not lead to a dramatic drop in real estate prices, due to the desirability of Tofino real estate, but suggested that should not be seen as a convincing deterrent.
“If we do not opt in, all agree that real estate prices will continue to escalate as Tofino will be viewed as a mecca for investment, making housing even less affordable for locals,” he said.
“Some people want to wait and see how Bill 35 pans out in other communities. I would argue that any facts or evidence will not change the minds of those doubters unless the evidence concurs with their beliefs…Let’s take the greed out of Tofino and replace it with community.”
CAO Attiana’s staff report and recommendation, which surprised and angered McMaster, suggested the district’s upcoming zoning bylaw review would begin imminently and allow council and staff to have a more fulsome look at the provincial legislation’s implications.
Attiana said that while the current and past councils have discussed a potential principal residence requirement before, the new legislation had only landed on staff’s desks in December, not allowing enough time for a thorough review.
She added that staff presented Bill 35 to council on Jan. 23 and a public consultation period kicked off on Jan. 26.
“Consultation was effective in many ways, however it did lack in some ways due to the limited and compressed time that we had,” she said. “It didn’t allow for the ability for all voices to be heard fully.”
She said there was “strong support” for opting in to the legislation through written correspondence from residents, “but those voices weren’t necessarily as represented at the town hall or in roundtable discussions.”
She explained that the district received 117 letters about the issue with about 54 per cent opposed to opting in, 34 per cent in favour of opting in and the remaining 12 per cent not stating a clear preference.
A similar breakdown was seen in the feedback provided to the district’s TalkTofino online portal where 58 per cent of respondents were against opting in and 33 per cent were in favour.
After highlighting the feedback ratios, Attiana spoke to how the conversation of Bill-35 had made her reflect on her own participation in local decision making during her time on the district’s staff. She joined the district in 2010 as Chief Financial Officer and became the CAO in 2022.
“Some of the things that I’ve noticed over the years with respect to making effective decisions, taking time and having an established framework has typically promoted buy-in by the community, encouraged quality decision making and often has positive results,” she said.
“Some of the key factors that I’ve particularly noted that contributed to past success is having time to work through a matter to gain the resources that we need to effectively advise and present to council.”
She went through several examples of past council decisions, including an organizational structure change in the district office, asset management and a water masterplan.
“I felt as though it was incumbent upon me to reflect on some of the successful decisions that we have made in collaboration with council and bring those forward for reflection this evening,” she said. “If we have adequate time to work through an issue or a problem, it is of extreme benefit to staff so that we are able to provide the right information and adequate information to council, including data and information to define and support the issue and recommended solutions, appropriate and adequate analysis and a professional review of the issue or problem that this is applicable.”
She added that she hoped to “set council up for success” by collaborating on a solution to the Bill-35 question through the zoning review process.
“I don’t believe it’s my position today as your CAO to provide a recommendation on whether council should opt in or not, I would like to fully examine this issue with council as well as the collective thoughts and ideas through the zoning review process and look at everything comprehensively,” she said.
Coun. Tom Stere said McMaster’s immediate motion had changed the direction he was expecting the discussion to go in, adding Bill-35 discourse “has been an all encompassing conversation in the last few months.”
Stere expressed support for staff’s recommendation to defer the decision to the rezoning process rather than buy into Bill-35 out of the gate.
“I personally believe opting in doesn’t go strong enough,” he said. “I think, through the rezoning review process, we will have the ability to craft the appropriate tools to really address the fundamental issues…I think we have a much better tool and a much more robust way of regulating STRs (short term rentals) to meet the clear objectives of what this community has stated.”
Coun. Kat Thomas agreed with McMaster and said the principal residence requirement has been discussed in Tofino for roughly a decade.
“It’s something that’s been coming up over and over again. This is an opportunity to do it,” she said. “I know some people feel that we should be doing something stronger through zoning, but that’s going to take years and it seems ridiculous not to take the small steps now that will get us to where we’re going.”
Thomas also shared McMaster’s frustration with Attiana’s staff report.
“I’m also very disappointed in the report that was served to us. It obscured where a lot of the data was coming from,” she said. “It makes no mention that we’ve been hearing the same voices amplified through four or five channels.”
She said the same group of residents wrote letters, posted on TalkTofino and attended public engagement sessions and their objections were counted each time.
“There’s probably been 100 unique voices asking us to opt out or wait and they’re not representative of the majority of Tofino,” she said. “I think we should keep in mind who we’re here representing and whether we’re representing a small amount of stakeholders or if we’re representing the majority of the public. I know who I’m representing.”
Coun. Sarah Sloman said she didn’t feel comfortable waiting and added that she had owned a Fred Tibbs unit in 1998 when most of the units at that time were long-term rentals.
“Over the years, we’ve consistently seen the long term rental use of those properties decline,” she said.
Coun. Ali Sawyer suggested Attiana’s staff recommendation put council in a tough spot as going against it would present an inconsistent and divided message to the community.
“I relied heavily on staff when we all did and going forward I want to see us working together…I personally want to know that staff are behind me and all of us and that we are going to be making this happen as a united voice,” she said. “To me, that is very important to the public on all sides.”
Coun. Al Anderson said he was “very much in favour” of opting in, but questioned whether it should be done right away.
“I believe that the proliferation of short term rentals over the past 25 years or so, if continued for another 25 years, will have dramatic impacts on the whole viability of Tofino…That’s not just about housing affordability. It’s about community in general and all of the things that means. There’s threats to our economy if we can’t house our workers, including the tourism economy,” Anderson said.
“What I fear, going straight to just opting in: do we know how that will be implemented? Do we have a plan around implementation? Do we have a plan about enforcement and how that will play out? There’s things we don’t have answers to yet from the province. They haven’t laid out fully what they’re bringing forward…How can we best opt in?”
McMaster doubted the bylaw review would be quick and again raised objection to Attiana’s report, noting the progress heralded within it was not rapid.
“We’ve got staff boasting about getting the water report done. We’ve been asking for that for 15 years. I mean, yeah, they did a great job, but 15 years we waited for it and that was with no legal challenges,” he said.
Coun. Thomas agreed and questioned staff’s willingness to support council.
“Throughout the history of the discussions on short term rentals within the last four years, we have had immense pushback from staff, a lot of reluctance to move forward on things,” she said. “We have consistently received pushback on things that we have been asking for…I’m not worried about having staff in agreement with me because we’re not taking direction from staff. We’re not taking biassed reports. We are here to make tough decisions.”
Coun. Stere was quick to object to Thomas’ allegation.
“I have strong objections to the implication that staff have consistently given biassed reports. That is conjecture. This is not the venue for that conversation to be taking place,” he said.
Coun. Anderson agreed and recalled Tofino being able to house workers about 15 years ago.
“Neighbourhoods are being impacted both by living among the visitors…but also impacted by the fact that a number of staff housing units that are increasing the numbers of people coming and going,” he said. “There hasn’t been a huge number of new workers in Tofino. It’s just that they’re being shifted into lower and lower forms of housing while our housing stock in general is being turned over to the highest, most-income use and I think that is also skewing the market in general.”
Coun. Sawyer recalled five of her friends living in the Tibbs building 12 years ago and could afford paying their rent on hospitality wages at the time.
“Their landlords had mortgages that were not based on today’s prices,” she said. “Unfortunately, we can’t choose who people will rent their properties to. We can’t make people care about the community over income. People will make those decisions on their own and that has been a really interesting thing to learn from the conversations I’ve had with members of the public. You really would hope that people would have a community minded view and that they would want to see growth and a future for families, but there will always be people who will choose profit and they will choose to make the most value out of a property that they can and that is their choice.”
She reiterated that council should sing in unison with staff to make the voice stronger.
McMaster responded that investors will follow the money, regardless of whether staff and council present a united front.
“We’re generally talking about investors and, as soon as an investor is not getting a return on his money, he generally takes that money somewhere else. That person is either going to sell, or he’s going to say I’m going to do a long term rental because some income is better than no income,” he said.
McMaster acknowledged Attiana’s report included the district’s efforts to build affordable housing through its partnership with the Tofino Housing Corporation, but said those efforts are leaving a gap.
“That dictates the income levels of the people that get in there. We have got a lot of people in this town that earn too much to qualify for our affordable housing, but not enough to get into the market in Tofino. Those are the people that are going to be teachers, nurses, junior doctors, we need those people,” he said.
Mayor Dan Law said the conversation around whether to opt in has been “eye opening.”
“The financialization of housing in Tofino and the province and the country is extremely serious and it is happening at an extremely rapid rate,” he said. “If I had known four years ago that the prices would double, that we would lose homes to short term rentals, I probably would have acted a little sooner and maybe with a little more vigour. Seven years ago, if I had known that in the next seven years, the median value of a home would go from just over $500,000 to $1.6 million and essentially exclude every median household income earner from owning homes in Tofino, I probably would have acted sooner. But, I didn’t know that.”
He added the decision was made tougher by its perceived impacts on Fredd Tibbs and Eik Landing owners.
“With the loss of legal non-conforming protections, these decisions affect people now. People that we know and that we like. They’re our neighbours and our friends and people we work with. If it wasn’t for that I think this would have been decided right away to be honest,” he said.
He suggested finding a compromise by council agreeing to opt in in 2025 and finding ways to further restrict vacation rentals in the meantime, but that idea fell flat with only Coun. Stere agreeing and Law himself voting against the amendment.
“I’m absolutely not in favour of waiting until 2025,” Thomas said. “Everybody has said, ‘If we had the opportunity to do this years ago, we would have’ and now we’re talking about delaying it more? I’m completely opposed to that.”
Law said he was comforted by the knowledge that Eik Landing and Fred Tibbs owners could continue short term renting their units under the principal residence requirement as long as it is for less than half the year.
“Homes have become commercialized and they have been turned into investments. That’s the problem. To get them to change that in any way shape or form is going to be hard for the people who have chosen those as investments,” Law said. “Ultimately, the goal is to return back to homes as a primary purpose…I think that there is going to be pain, but I am a little comforted to know that, if council does opt in, it is flexible enough that there is going to be ways for people who dearly need them to continue.”
After the lengthy conversation, McMaster, Thomas, Law, Sloman and Anderson voted in favour of opting in, outnumbering opposition votes from Stere and Sawyer.
B.C.’s Minister of Housing Ravi Khalon was quick to congratulate council on their decision, releasing a statement Wednesday morning.
“The housing crisis isn’t just an issue in large communities, it is also having a significant impact in smaller communities like Tofino. We’ve heard from tourism and hospitality businesses in Tofino that they are struggling to operate because there isn’t enough housing for local workers,” Khalon’s statement reads.
“By passing a motion yesterday to request opt-in to our short-term rental legislation, Tofino city council has made an important decision to protect homes for the people who keep the community going, while ensuring that short-term rentals are still available at principal residences for people who want to visit. I applaud their decision and look forward to continuing to work with them to deliver more housing for people living and working in Tofino.”
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