CKTZ had a roundtable chat with SRD Regional Director Mark Vonesch and MLA for North Island Michele Babchuk. This is part one of that discussion.

After becoming the regional director for Cortes Island last fall, Mark Vonesch said he made it his first priority to create an annual revenue stream for affordable housing on the island.

Beginning July 1, Vonesch has successfully implemented the short term rental tax, which is a three per cent tax that will be automatically applied to the cost of a Cortes vacation rental through AirBnB. This is the first time this type of tax revenue will be entirely directed to affordable housing.

“In my very first meeting, which was designed for doing your inauguration and swearing in, I managed to… get unanimous support from the regional district board to support an application, which was a tax the provincial government had set up, traditionally used for tourism advertising,” Vonesch explained.

The province originally set up the tax to support tourism advertising, Vonesch noted, but, recently, the tax revenue also permitted to support housing initiatives. 

This tax will not affect local, long-term rentals. Vonesch estimated $50,000 of annual revenue will be raised from the tax, all of which will go into the Cortes Community Housing Society’s Rainbow Ridge housing project.

MLA for the North Island Region Michele Babchuk sat down with Vonesch to discuss how the tax and similar initiatives could help the local community. She noted that previous to her visit, she didn’t realize how dire the housing situation was on Cortes.

“I didn't realize that there was as much of an issue here as what I've been told today," Babchuk. "So I think this is a really great start, the first phase of good things to come and I'm really looking forward to advocating for those monies to make sure that it comes to fruition.”

To hear these politicians discuss further tax solutions, listen to the CKTZ News Update below: