TIMMINS - The local hotel tax could be going up.
Increasing the municipal accommodation tax (MAT) from four per cent to six per cent was at Tuesday's Timmins council meeting. A decision was deferred until the new year.
Since 2019, the city has been collecting a four per cent tax on short-term stays at hotels and motels. While the bylaw also applies to other short-term accommodations such as Air BnBs and VRBOs, the city hasn't had the software to track, and ultimately collect, the cash from them.
While there isn't a formal hotel association locally, Mayor Michelle Boileau said that hotel representatives sit on the Timmins Economic Development Corporation's MAT committee, which hands out half of the money collected for tourism activities.
Raising the tax was brought to hotel members on the TEDC committee, said Boileau.
"One of the concerns was that the hoteliers would like to see some sort of guarantee that short-term rentals that aren't currently having to remit the MAT tax, that those be included in a bylaw amendment," she said.
For the MAT grant, the other half of the cash collected goes to the city coffers, with council deciding how to spend it.
At Tuesday's meeting, $400,000 from the city's portion of the fund was allocated for capital projects at the McIntyre arena in 2025.
Earlier this year, the Downtown Timmins BIA picked up $80,000 to buy new Christmas lighting and replace the snowflakes that decorate the lampposts. In South Porcupine, the Barn received $25,000 for its new scoreboard.
