CORNWALL, Ontario – Local hotel and motel owners have signed a petition asking that Cornwall City Council repeal its new Municipal Accommodation Tax, or hotel tax.
The tax, which came into effect on June 1, adds a 4 percent tax to all temporary, non-student accommodation in the City of Cornwall. This includes hotels, motels, inns and the Nav Centre.
A report presented to council calculated that if the 800 potentially available rooms in Cornwall were occupied 50 percent of the time for the whole year, the City would generate a revenue of $642,400.
Half of that revenue would go back to the City to fund their Tourism office, the rest would go to an event or cause that would attract tourists to Cornwall.
Prior to its implementation, several hotel operators stated that they felt that 4 percent was too steep.
“An increase in tax would impose a total tax of 17 percent which is totally unfair to our customers and to the hotel/motel owners,” the petition against the tax reads. “This will significantly reduce the business of Hotels in Cornwall. Till (sic) the introduction of HST, guests were paying only 5 percent of the PST which was 2 percent less than the actual PST because the Ontario government wanted to encourage the tourism in the province. However, after the introduction of Harmonized Sales Tax, travelers (sic) have to pay 13 percent HST. The hotel guests are already very upset about this hike of 8 percent to their bills and any further taxation by the city of Cornwall will certainly be a big negative in attracting tourists.”
In their report to Council, City administration stated that they felt 4 percent was fair as it was consistent with other cities in Ontario that have Municipal Accommodation taxes.
“Ontario government has suggested a Tax based on the influx of tourists in any city,” reads the petition. “While GTA & Ottawa are major tourist cities, Cornwall can be in NO comparison with these cities to impose such a Tax. There has been nothing special to get tourists in this city and it does not mean that a small city like Cornwall should also start imposing un-necessary taxes unless there are already investors building a hot tourist attraction. There were no prior consultations with local businesses before even planning to impose this tax.”
The petition is calling for the immediate repeal of the Municipal Accommodation Tax.
The following hotels, motels and inns have signed the petition at the time of publication: Super 8, Fairview, Murray Hill Motel, Martin’s Inn, Nites Inn, Elect Inn (5 inc.), Century Motel, First Canada Inn, Murphy’s Inn, Monte Carlo Motel, Howard Johnson and Comfort Inn.
