Victoria's mayor wants province to delay new short-term rental rules in the capital

Nancy Paine is winding down her business, Spacehost, which manages short-term rentals, and is bracing for rule changes coming soon.

However on Tuesday, she learned Victoria's mayor, Marianne Alto, is trying to persuade the province to hold off on the changes until the fall.

“I feel like government has already killed the business so this just feels like death by a thousand paper cuts,” said Paine.

As of May 1, for many communities, short-term rentals will only be allowed at a primary residence. Mayor Alto supports the restrictions, but thinks businesses like Paine’s should have more time to prepare—and the tourism industry should get to enjoy one more strong summer before rules take effect,

“We’re approaching that high season in Victoria, being the summer of course, the idea was to provide these folks one more high season before they become long-term housing providers,” said Alto Tuesday.

Orion Rodgers, with the group Property Rights B.C., thinks a delay in implementing the new rules would be a good start.

“I think it gives more time to tourism, it gives more time to individual property owners,” Rodgers said Tuesday. “It’s going to give more time to businesses in our community to adjust to these changes.”

Ravi Kahlon, B.C.’s housing minister, said Tuesday that people have already had plenty of time—and Victoria is not getting a break on the rules.

“People are struggling for housing in our community right now,” said Kahlon. “There’s people struggling in Victoria right now to get access to housing, and most people would say why are we taking so long to do this.”

But Victoria is just the latest community to press for relief. Parksville repeatedly sought a full exemption citing tourism impacts, and a group from across B.C. that signed a petition with 10,000 names brought their protest to the legislature last week.

Meanwhile, 14 resort communities including Tofino, and communities with a population less than 10,000 can apply to opt-in to the short-term restrictions.

Tofino votes Tuesday night whether it will do just that, as different communities grapple with major changes to housing—and tourism—looming just six weeks away.