I am concerned with decisions made by council recently, specifically regarding the review process of STAs and the approval of a Climate Action Committee in our municipality.
I have been following the STA review since July and have participated in public forums and read various opinions shared online and in the Bruce Peninsula Press. It is troubling that the Recommendation Report released in December massively favours a highly regulated and expensive process for renting your home on the Bruce, despite most STA operators being quite modest in their rental operation.
The first source of disinformation stems from the percentage of survey responses in favour of a regulated process as if it were a true representation of our entire population. People don’t tend to contribute to feedback if they are generally content or indifferent and are far more likely to complete a survey if they have a stake in the matter. It is disingenuous to present this response rate as a true sample of citizens.
The amount of regulation recommended by the consultant far exceeds what Toronto has applied, including charging an annual license fee up to ten times the fee implemented in Toronto. The recommendation includes additional municipal resources for bylaw enforcement and administration and encourages a complaint protocol directly with the municipality versus discussing disputes with neighbours. We need less government and conservative spending, not additional resources to be funded by STA operators and/or additional taxes.
It was also suggested that regulating STAs will promote additional long-term rental units which is unlikely due to the features of cottage rentals and their lack of proximity to the highway. The market should dictate supply and demand for both long-term and short-term rentals, not council. Vacationers are not demanding week-long family vacations in a hotel or motel, they want a quiet cottage where the family is all together, and the market has proven that by the success of responsible and TICO-certified vacation rental companies doing business on the Bruce over the last 10-20 years.
It is not reasonable to compare a small tourist municipality like NBP to a massive metropolitan center like Toronto. Nor does it make sense for a municipality whose primary economic offering is tourism to make it unaffordable to vacation in Northern Bruce Peninsula. Those tourism dollars will be displaced to another Ontario community who have not implemented a Municipal Accommodation Tax or fees (as presented by the Ontario Restaurant Hotel & Motel Association).
If Council chooses to move forward with any regulation of STAs, it will demonstrate good faith to offer an open house with operators to hear these interests and develop a process that is fair and fitting to our unique municipality and communities.
The second decision by council that requires a counterplea is the formation of a Climate Action Committee.
While I think it is honourable of our students to take an interest in the environment, I fear that the trend amplified by the Greta Thunberg school strikes for climate change sends the wrong message to youth and encourages radical demands that will affect the quality of life of our citizens.
The Bruce Peninsula Environment Group has cited the IPCC as a foundation for why NBP needs a Climate Action Committee. However, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has faced scandals regarding falsified data, former IPCC scientific reviewers with evidence of IPCC reports neglecting amendments that don’t fit the narrative, and socialist policies masked as climate change solutions. These solutions threaten basic needs and encourage a descend of our industrial progress.
Since other “Climate Action Committees” across North America have been given authority to provide “recommendations on policies, bylaws, plans, programs, budgets and issues related to air quality and climate change service,” it is detrimental that these decisions are based on undisputed evidence. Beware of vague statements like “acknowledge the science” which has been used to silence skeptics when attempting to debate statistics, models and remedies.
The CAC must include citizens from all perspectives on this topic in order to provide the best representation of our municipality’s needs. I volunteer to participate for this environmental justice collective and hope you’ve taken these concerns to heart.
Sincerely,
Christina Zalagenas
