Visitors to Timmins could see a new tax on their hotel bill next year.

City Council last night approved the next steps in a Municipal Accommodation Tax, a possible 4% tax on hotels, motels, AirBnB’s and cottages.

Timmins CAO Dave Landers told media after Council last night that the tax will be mandatory for people coming to the city for less than 30 days. The 4% tax would be part of the HST guests pay on their hotel/motel/accommodation bill.

The tax could generate $1 million a year for the City. Landers said Council still needs to determine where the funds from the tax would go.

“Some of those funds could be reinvested back into tourism,” he said last night, “through not for profit or charity type tourism offerings. The Municipality also has the opportunity to use some of those funds to offset some of the cost of its operations.”

Council now has approval to move forward and come up with a program. Landers says council will be presented with options for how best to utilize the funds gained from this new Accommodation Tax.

“It could go into specific tourism oriented activities,” Landers said, “it could go through a not-for-profit type of organization that would be focusing on tourism. It could be a mix of both. […] There is a range of opportunities for municipalities to use those funds to benefit tourism within its community. ”

This tax will be applied to any bill for accommodation for a guest in Timmins, as long as they stay for less than 30 days. This includes cottages, cabins, and AirBnB’s.

Sudbury, North Bay and Sault Ste. Marie have already moved forward with the new tax.

Landers says the goal is for the tax to come into effect in January.

“The goal would be to come back to new council with a program that we could work to implement as soon as possible within the new year.”

 

–With files from Timmins Today