Thank you.

Good morning. My name is Dave Brown. I'm a long-time realtor in Whistler, British Columbia. I'm here today to discuss the underused housing tax on behalf of both the Whistler Real Estate Association, which is made up of about 150 realtors, and Tourism Whistler, a non-profit tourism organization representing 8,000 members who have tourist-zoned property on resort lands in Whistler.

Tourism Whistler's CEO Barrett Fisher is out of the country, so she is unable to testify today.

Whistler is requesting that all tourist-zoned accommodation with restricted-use covenants on title be exempt from the UHT. Within the provincially legislated Resort Municipality of Whistler Act, incorporated in 1975, all land located at the base of Whistler's two mountains and three golf courses were designated resort lands for the purpose of generating a vibrant tourist economy for the community.

It has been very successful. Whistler has grown into a global tourist destination, generating more than $2 billion in annual visitor spending and approximately $700 million in tax revenues while supporting more than 3,000 businesses and 15,000 jobs. As stipulated within the official community plan, accommodation properties located on resort lands have covenants on title—phase 1 or phase 2—confirming the required tourist usage. As well, property owners on resort lands must pay a mandatory annual tourism assessment fee to support Whistler's tourism economy, including destination development, marketing and sales initiatives.

From Whistler's earliest days, the resort has encouraged both domestic and international investment to build hotels, condominiums, townhouses and houses for tourist rentals, providing a breadth of accommodation choices for a diversity of visitors who come to enjoy Whistler's outdoor recreation, cultural offerings and commercial amenities. Approximately 80% of Whistler's tourist accommodation is owned by individual investors who put their hotel, condominium or housing units into a tourist rental pool to support Whistler's visitor economy. The new federal UHT penalizes those investors who have supported Whistler's tourism economy and contributed to its long-term success.

International owners typically use their property one to two weeks a year, then put it into a rental pool for the remainder of the year so the accommodation is not sitting empty but rather being maximized for its intended tourist rental usage. Requiring international owners to utilize their properties for a minimum of 28 personal days would therefore remove this accommodation from the tourism rental pool. This is a major concern for hoteliers, property managers and commercial businesses, since owner accommodation usage does not support ground transportation, resort activities, attractions, restaurants, bars, nightclubs, retail shops, spas and conference facilities to the same level that nightly rental visitors do.

Worse, many international accommodation owners are refusing to pay the UHT and are putting their properties up for sale, thereby taking their units out of the rental pool altogether. These properties would likely be sold to B.C. residents who would use them as second homes.

It's important to note that any federal government revenue gained from the UHT would be neutralized by the corresponding loss in GST that would have been collected from tourist visits. That's the GST not only on accommodation rentals but also on the wide variety of tourism businesses and services that tourists invest in while vacationing in Whistler.

The Canada Revenue Agency has deemed any stratified hotel or condominium property with a kitchen to be suitable for residential use, even if this unit is subject to zoning and covenant restrictions that govern the allowable usage. However, this does not make sense, as most hotel properties...nor their kitchen facilities are appropriate to support year-round residential usage, as the covenant restriction on hotels and condominiums limits personal usage of these units to 28 days in the winter, November through April, and 28 days in summer, May through October, in order to support intended tourist rental usage.

We appreciate the rationale for taxing foreign-owned residential housing that is being underutilized and unavailable as local housing stock. However, this is not the case within the Whistler resort's land-zoned districts, where purpose-built tourist accommodation is being fully utilized for its intended purpose of nightly vacation rentals. Further to this, Whistler has made a strong commitment to funding and building affordable employee housing within the residential neighbourhoods.

As a resort municipality, Whistler is exempt from the Province of British Columbia's speculation and vacancy tax, introduced in 2018, and it is exempt from the Government of Canada's Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act, which took effect on January 1, 2023.

I'll note that resort municipalities are recognized as purpose-built tourist destinations that generate international export revenues.

Whistler, therefore, respectfully requests that the federal government create an exemption within the underused housing tax legislation for tourist accommodation in the resort municipalities prior to the tax deadline of April 30, 2024, or as soon as possible.

Without such an exemption, the economic viability of Whistler's businesses will likely decline, along with the corresponding federal, provincial and municipal tax revenues, undermining the buoyancy of Whistler's vibrant tourist accommodation.

I have a couple of points to talk about—

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