The Municipal Accommodation Tax is a 4% surcharge on the cost of a nightly stay in the County. It is collected by STA owners, bed and breakfasts, and hoteliers.

In 2023, the tax generated $1,568,466, including $46,000 in accrued interest. That’s an increase of over $300,000 from 2022, when the MAT generated $1.2 million.

Half the proceeds of this tax stay with the County, while the other half funds its tourist management organizations, Visit the County and StayPEC. After staffing costs ($112,000) are subtracted, $1.456 million will be shared out. About $728,000 stays with the municipality for spending priorities determined in the 2024 budget. The other half funds StayPEC ($105,000) and VTC ($623,000) for the 2024 fiscal year.

Amanda Carter, Director of Finance, attributes the increase not to more visitors or overnight stays, but to enhanced enforcement. The County has enacted regulations that restrict licensing if an operator owes money to the municipality.

“If STA operators don’t pay taxes, their water bill, or their Municipal Accommodation Tax, they can’t get their STA licence renewed for the year,” said County spokesperson Mark Kerr.  “That has significant financial implications to the STA operator, and is driving better MAT compliance as a result.”

In other words, if an accommodator does not collect and submit the tax, their STA licence will not be renewed. As a result, compliance was up in each quarter in 2023 over 2022. Ms. Carter found a 14% increase in tax remittances in winter 2023; a 25% increase in spring; a 10% increase in summer; and a 30% increase in fall.

Despite the fact that AirDNA, which monitors the STA industry, reports an 11% drop in room nights booked in the County between 2022 and 2023, MAT remittances are holding steady.

The County reports an average of 730 accommodators collected the tax over the course of 2023. The busiest months were July through September, when 54,500 nights were booked. Next was spring, with 22,620 nights. Autumn saw 11,440, and winter 6650 overnight stays. There were a total of 95,000 overnight stays in 2023, the same number as in 2022.

The County spends its share of the MAT on road maintenance and construction. The 2023 budget allocated $700,000 in collected MAT to Roads Construction. The 2024 Budget contains a MAT reserve of $912,000. $419,000 went to Road Construction and a further $118,000 for the 2024 Tourism Management Plan.

Budget deliberations for 2025, which are beginning now, might consider new ways of allocating the municipality’s increasing share of the MAT. In a presentation to Council’s COTW March 14, Andrew Siegwart, CEO of the Ontario Tourism Industry Association, suggested the municipality get ahead of coming legislation by reviewing its MAT spending priorities. “You could get a little more creative and strategic there,” he noted politely.