A few years ago, in Never Again Land, Chris and I embarked on the dream. We bought a beautiful old Cressy farmhouse that was beyond our means but made affordable by the promising and sensible idea of renting it out when we were not using it.

I set about creating a vacation dream house, outfitted with clean, crisp sheets, stacks of fresh towels, and everything you could ask for in the kitchen. We got to enjoy all these nice things too, after the long drive from Toronto, so it was double plus good.

Flash forward a year or two and the work required was taking its toll.

Cleaning is never done, I discovered, until you want to die. It was endless. You can’t leave anything to even the best cleaning team. You must personally be on hand to find what got missed. In the garbage can. Under the toaster. Inside the microwave.

The one time you do not do this a used diaper will be found under a bed. Guaranteed.

And then there’s outside. What? You didn’t hire a gardener? Then you will be the one weeding the huge country garden, pulling the dandelions growing all over the patio, and watering everything, in between check out at 11 and check in at 3.

There was always something that needed repairing or replacing. Immediately. Sheets, towels, the coffee maker, a sofa.

But best of all, of course, were the last-minute emergencies — the septic tank that backed up with one houseful of guests not too happy and another on the way; the frozen well at Christmas; the infestation of harmless but revolting beetles.

I break out in hives even thinking of those days. Running a newspaper is nothing compared to the stress of owning a single vacation rental. I promise you. I can’t even imagine a hotel.

Which is, perhaps, why I am particularly sensitive to the Municipal Accommodation Tax: who pays it, how it is collected, and where it is spent.

Council and Visit the County like to say that “tourists pay the tax.” Strictly speaking, they do. But it is our hoteliers and vacation homeowners — and all of those who cook and clean — who truly bring this money into the County’s coffers. The hospitality industry is not an easy one. Think of all the labourers we have here: the farmers, the vintners, the chefs. The brewers, the bakers, the candlestick makers.

It’s like the olden days. That’s our charm.

I looked recently what it cost to rent a four-bedroom farmhouse outside town. About $400 a night. Total bargain.

But at check out, that sum ballooned to $750, inflated by all the taxes and fees piled onto the base price. Cleaning, AirBnB, HST.

And the 4 percent Municipal Accommodation Tax.

Our accommodators must keep their rates low, so the taxes don’t send their prices into the stratosphere. That 4 percent must come straight out of their revenues.

In 2024, accommodation brought $32 million into the County. The tax on that sum generated about $1.4 million. What a windfall. Like free money.

Half of these funds stay with the municipality. The other half is divided between Visit the County and Stay PEC, our “destination management and marketing” organizations. They are called DMMOs.

At its AGM this year, VTC presented financial statements to account for the $624,000 in MAT funds it received in 2024. It spent $409,000 on advertising, mostly on social media, and the rest on wages.

StayPEC, which receives about $100k a year, has yet to publicly state where its money goes, although according to County spokesperson Mark Kerr, a report is expected at Council.

Meanwhile, the municipality is just starting to consider where it might spend its own share of the MAT windfall. Up until now, much of it has been relegated to the roads.

Don’t get me wrong. Road repair benefits everyone. But there are myriad ways to support tourism, which is what these funds are legally obligated to do.

Our DMMOs, for example, have a great deal of latitude in their interpretation of the “destination management and marketing” mandate. Sophisticated tourism investment recognizes that marketing can turn around the destination. It can target those things that bring tourists – music and film festivals; art galleries; farm-to-table dining; wineries and cideries and breweries; lovely accommodations; strong local heritage and museums — and support them.

A flourishing place to live is the only place people will want to visit. Full stop. Spending on tourism must sustain and develop the sense of place that draws people here in the first place. It must prioritize residents as well as visitors.

A collaboration this summer between VTC, County Transit, the Picton BIA, and The Regent to keep the theatre’s doors open from 10am to 10pm every day this July and August is a case in point.

The initiative could not have cost anybody very much. A few summer students got some extra shifts out of the arrangement. But what an effect it had! Over 8000 people came through The Regent’s doors to use the washrooms or buy a cold drink. About a quarter of those had a tourism-related inquiry, needed a map, or some advice on where to eat dinner.

That’s 8000 people over and above those who already had a reason to be at the theatre.

The knock-on effects up and down Main Street were tremendous. Revenues at The Regent alone this summer are more than double those of 2024.

It wasn’t just the new partnership, of course. The Regent boasts dedicated staff and volunteers, and fantastic programming. But still. Keeping the doors open just gave a huge extra lift. The Regent plans to continue the initiative into the fall. 

Another example is the new PEC Arts Fund. Launched in 2024, it requires Shire Hall to invest 50k of its MAT reserves into a fund managed and grown by The County Foundation, which contributes a matching amount. The collaboration says much about the value investing in the arts generates for PEC. Already funds have been disbursed across the County, from CAFF to CountyStage to Quintissimo to the Department of Illumination.

It’s not what it should be. The Arts Council says $200k is what is really needed in annual arts investment. But it’s a start.

The County will soon launch its first public consultation over its share of the MAT it collects every year. It’s about time. But this review should be brought to bear on all MAT funds.

If a portion of the MAT funds turned over to VTC and StayPEC were dedicated to supporting local tourist-drawing initiatives, never mind growing our festivals, whether CountyStage, or CAFF, or Biglake, or the Jazz and Chamber music festivals, the returns over the next decade would be enormous.

All of these festivals could use MAT funds for advertising outside the County, targeting select audiences.

Funds earned here should be re-invested in the people and initiatives that keep visitors coming year after year. The early returns are already showing the enormous gains to be had.