MINDEMOYA—The Manitoulin Municipal Association (MMA) is going to work together to come up with a consistent policy in regard to the short-term accommodations rental (STAR) bylaws for Island municipalities. However, the Mayor of Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands says that while his municipality is interested in seeing what other municipalities are putting in place for STAR, his municipality will be carrying out its own policy.
“We haven’t created a bylaw on STARs in NEMI,” NEMI Mayor Al MacNevin told The Expositor last week. “As council we have agreed to hold off on the bylaw at the moment, but we definitely won’t be in favour of a one-size-fits-all bylaw for the Island.” He explained as part of the town’s strategic plan deliberations, the issue of STAR was included for review and to come up with a strategy. “We know we may have to get more involved on it, and we’ll look at bylaws in other municipalities and see what effects these bylaws have in them.”
STAR, “is one of the items council has put on the table for discussion, and we have asked staff to look at bylaws in other municipalities and we will definitely support looking at other bylaws and how they are enforced and what affects this has. But we are not going to just go ahead and be involved in one bylaw for the Island. We will base our bylaw on the impacts of short-term rentals in NEMI,” said Mayor MacNevin.
“I just think it would be a good time for all municipalities to get together to share their short-term accommodation lease bylaws and policies that are agreeable to everyone and have the same purpose,” stated Richard Stephens, mayor of the municipality of Central Manitoulin at an MMA meeting last week in Mindemoya. He pointed out Central Manitoulin has a STAR bylaw in place that could be shared with other municipalities for input.
MMA Chair Ken Noland (reeve of Burpee and Mills) explained that the township council has not yet passed its STAR bylaw. “I agree it is a good idea to share what other municipalities have in place.”
Gordon/Barrie Island has a STAR bylaw in place, but Reeve Lee Hayden told the meeting there will be a learning curve with it to see where it is strong and where amendments can be made in the future.
STAR, “is something new and we all want a good document,” said Reeve Hayden. “We are willing to look at other municipalities bylaws and see where ours may be strong or needs work. We are willing to discuss this.”
“After the STAR is in place a year, municipalities might find out something that needs to be changed,” said Gore Bay Councillor Dan Osborne. “We are willing to look at and discuss this with other municipalities so we have a consistent, good bylaw.”
While Billings township has a STAR bylaw in place it was done with some amendments made to it, said Mayor Bryan Barker. “But having some kind of consistency across the Island would be a good idea.”
It was suggested that those municipalities that have STAR bylaws in place should send them in to the MMA secretary so they can be distributed to all Island municipalities for consideration.
Mayor Stephens told The Expositor after the meeting, “My idea in bringing this forward was to have every municipality that has a bylaw in place to bring it forward so other municipalities can review them, and we could have a basic template in place for the entire Island. And so people who have property in more than one community on the Island don’t have to jump through a different set of rules for each municipality they own property in. I felt if all the municipalities got together and compared bylaws and say one municipality has a better idea in one part of their bylaw and another municipality has a good point on another that can be used as part of the bylaw. That way if and when bylaws are updated the bylaws would be more consistent and better for everyone involved.”
“It was never my intention to say everyone had to have exactly the same bylaw. But everyone could put information on the table about what they have and see if they are comparable, so we all have the same basic rules and regulations,” said Mayor Stephens. “Most municipalities sent out a draft STAR bylaw for public consultation and input, and then had this go back to councils for final consideration. The MMA has no authority; it is a forum for discussion of issues. We make recommendations that can be taken back to municipalities. My idea in bringing this forward was to come up with one basic bylaw that can be looked at by other municipalities around the Island rather than having seven different STAR policies in place.”
Mayor MacNevin, who was not in attendance at the MMA meeting last week, told The Expositor, “We have no examples of orders, issues and if fines have been imposed for those not following the rules in other municipalities that have STAR bylaws in place. We’ll look at other municipalities’ bylaws and what the effects of having these bylaws in place has been. And then we will look at the issue and what we want in place for NEMI. But we aren’t feeling the pressure so far that other areas are from people who want the (STAR) bylaws in place or are opposed to them. We are not opposed to looking at bylaws from other municipalities, but we are not looking to have the same rules and regulations in place—we will have one in place for our municipality.”
