Photo by David Stanley / Flickr (CC BY 2.0). Retrieved from nationalobserver.com
A remote Canadian island is breaking ground on a new way to buffer the negative effects short-term vacation rentals have on the housing crisis facing small, rural tourism-based communities.
B.C.’s Cortes Island is making housing history as the first community in the province to tax short-term holiday rentals and have the funds directed to affordable housing projects, said Mark Vonesch, the area’s Strathcona Regional District director.
A three per centMunicipal and Regional District Tax (MRDT) has been applied to vacation rentals since July 1, Vonesch said.
The tax will be collected by the province and directed monthly to the Cortes Housing Society to support the development of the 24-unit Rainbow Ridge affordable rental project.
“It’s the first time in B.C. history this tax is being used 100 per cent for housing,” he said of the tax that was originally set up to create funding for tourism advertising