The RMOW council voted unanimously in a May 14 meeting to increase the fines for illegal tourist accommodation violations from $1,000 to $3,000 daily.
“Staff believe that increasing the Municipal Ticket fine to $3,000 will help dissuade non-compliant tourist accommodation listings within the community. Bylaw Notices (the most common municipal ticketing system) can still be used for non-MTI fines. Bylaw Notice fines continue to have a maximum provincially allowed fine amount of $500,” notes a staff report.
Sign up for local news alerts from Whistler Daily Post
On October 26, 2023, the Province of British Columbia announced the Short-Term Rentals Accommodations Act (Bill 35). The legislation focuses on three key areas: increasing fines and strengthening tools for local governments, returning more short-term rentals to long-term homes and establishing new Provincial rules and creating a Provincial enforcement unit.
Local governments will have new tools to deal with illegal operators, and the Province will have a new enforcement unit to monitor illegal accommodations.
“The key benefits to Whistler found here, so requiring a business license has always been the same but the new thing that will be supported is that all online platforms must show a business license, so that’s huge for us,” said Lindsay Debou, manager of protective services.
“This will also offer some tools with an online rental platform. The province has created a platform for local governments to be able to view all of the tourist accommodation rentals that are occurring in in each community. And then that will be specific for us in Whistler so we can view the ones that are happening here. We’ll also be able to actively request platforms to remove any non compliant tourist accommodation listings. There’s quite a grid platform that the province is creating with that tool,” Debour informed the council.
DeBou also noted that RMOW has a designated staff member to enforce residential zoning.
Along with higher fines, the new provincial rules would require rental websites to include proof of the owner’s business license, which are required for short-term rentals, and to remove non-compliant properties upon request. The act will also improve how data is collected and shared by creating a province-wide rental registry.
“Our community has done a good job on this in the last few years, and these tools will allow us to do an even better job,” said Mayor Jack Crompton before calling the new bylaw amendment to a vote. The MTI bylaw passed the first three readings and will return to council in the future for final adoption.
Bylaw Services wrote 91 tickets in 2023 and 61 tickets thus far in 2024 for non-compliant tourist accommodation.
The municipality maintains an inventory of all accommodation units and notes that approximately 9,000 units are zoned for potential tourist accommodation. In Whistler, property owners must have both tourist accommodation zoning and a valid business licence to market, manage and provide paid accommodation to tourists.