Salt Spring’s Local Trust Committee (LTC) has decided to request the island be included in the “principal residency” requirement of the province’s Bill 35 — the Short-term Rental Accommodations Act.
The decision came at the Thursday, March 20 LTC meeting, arising from a staff report by Trust bylaw compliance and enforcement manager Warren Dingman on various short-term rental enforcement issues.
The LTC decision means that owners of visitor accommodations units, now including bed and breakfast operations, must affirm when registering with the province by May 1 that units offered are “in that person’s principal residence, in a secondary suite or other accessory dwelling unit on the same property as the principal residence such as a basement suite or laneway home, or in both.”
Bill 35 was passed in order to discourage residential housing from being used for tourist accommodation purposes.
Islands Trust communities were initially exempted from Bill 35’s principal residency requirements, but LTCs were given the choice to “opt in” by language in the 2023 act –– although until now only Gabriola Island had done so.
Discussions held between the LTC, Salt Spring Local Community Commission, the Salt Spring Accommodations Group (SSAG) and Salt Spring Chamber of Commerce since the legislation was first introduced more than a year ago, determined that opting in was desirable.
At Thursday’s LTC meeting, SSAG president Peter Lloyd-Jones said his group supported the move, with a couple of caveats.
“I think it will provide us with stronger tools for managing short-term vacation rentals and also establish a new provincial role for the management and regulation of short-term rentals on Salt Spring, and enforce the principal residency rule, which we think is very important,” he said.
The “caveats” are that sections of the island’s Land Use Bylaw 355 related to tourist accommodation “should be revised in order to be in compliance or work with the legislation and actually be enforceable,” and that a business licensing system be introduced.
Bill 35’s regulations require a “valid business licence number” be included in the provincial registry, where local governments require them. In the Capital Regional District’s electoral areas, businesses are regulated by zoning and rural land use bylaws, but currently no business licences are issued.
Trustee Laura Patrick said some people have questioned why the LTC didn’t opt in to Bill 35 last year, and told attendees no one knew at that time what the implications would be.
“The regulations weren’t out. It was unknown. And here we are a year later — we have the accommodations group, as well as the Salt Spring Chamber of Commerce, supporting us for opting in.”
She observed that the island’s tourist accommodation regulations were built “when the likes of Airbnb and others were not even imagined,” and said it was good to see the Trust working cooperatively with the local industry on this issue.
Patrick has since stated that the opt-in request, if accepted by the province, would not go into force until Nov. 1.
“At present and in accordance with the act, bed and breakfast operators must register by May 1. We have not had any conversations with the province as to how the registry will be updated — after Nov. 1 — to include the provincially required evidence of principal residence.”