MINDEMOYA—A Central Manitoulin municipal councillor said he didn’t receive much in the form of answers to his question as to whether the province will eventually be reassessing short-term accommodation rentals (STARs) as businesses, instead of residential properties, at the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM) annual conference.
“What I got from the responses I received to my questions was ‘hurry up and wait’,” stated Derek Stephens, a Central Manitoulin councillor after attending the FONOM annual conference in Parry Sound, last week.
Councillor Stephens told The Expositor, “I asked both Steve Clark, the minister of Municipal Affairs And Housing (MMAH) and Nicole McNeil, a representative of MPAC (Municipal Property Assessment Corporation) if STARs were going to be reassessed as a business or remain as a residential property.”
“Minister Clark said this is a problem and the province is looking into it,” said Councillor Stephens.
“When I posed the same question to Ms. McNeil of MPAC she said all municipalities are going through STAR and couldn’t answer if MPAC was going to reassess STAR accommodations as businesses.”
“Because STARs are businesses, they should be assessed a lot higher than a residential property,” said Mr. Councillor Stephens. “But if they remain assessed as residential properties they wouldn’t be. I know there are people operating STARs in my municipality that are making between $200,000-300,000 per year because they are only charged (taxed) as it being a residential home property.”
“Motels and hotels who provide accommodations pay commercial taxes, and they are assessed higher than residential. STARs are businesses and they should be as well in my opinion,” said Councillor Stephens. He explained all that municipalities can do is charge a STAR a business licence, but they don’t pay the same commercial taxes as other accommodation businesses.
“The way government works maybe in 20 years they might figure it out and come up with something on this issue,” added Councillor Stephens.
