Portage Passes Accommodation Tax Bylaw, Consolidates Funds for Tourism | Spare News
Portage la Prairie City Council has given second and third reading to an updated accommodation tax bylaw, a move that will consolidate existing reserve funds and significantly boost the city’s budget for tourism, marketing, and economic development. The bylaw was passed at a recent council meeting on November 10.
Joe Masi, City Councillor and the city’s Finance Chair said the primary change is the consolidation of two existing reserves into one new reserve called Community Enhancement. This reserve will be focused and directed toward marketing, community enhancement and tourism initiatives for the city.
The new Community Enhancement reserve will combine:
- $331,000 from the Saskatchewan Avenue West reserve (now that the project is complete).
- $70,200 from the existing economic development and tourism reserve.
This immediately creates a reserve of approximately $400,000 dedicated to “bringing events here or marketing Portage, beautification initiatives, anything that enhances and showcases our community,” Masi said.
“We’ve got money in a reserve now to do beautification and tourism and marketing and really promote Portage and host more events,” he added.
The bylaw also introduces two key changes to how the five per cent accommodation tax is applied:
- Extended Exemption Period: The exemption period for the tax has been extended from 30 nights to 90 nights. This means the tax will now capture longer-term stays up to 90 nights at hotels and motels.
- Short-Term Rental Exemption: Following legal advice from the province, the city is now required to exclude short-term rentals (basic rentals with fewer than four bedrooms) from the accommodation tax.
The tax rate itself remains unchanged at five per cent. The funds collected are paid by visitors staying at hotels and motels, not Portage la Prairie residents.
Masi noted that council’s strategic plan includes working with partners to enhance and promote tourism and attract new events.
“The more people that come to our community, that we can brag about our community and really be excited about bringing events here, now we’ve got a reserve to really promote that,” he said.
He cited the upcoming Prairie Unity Pow Wow Competition in December—a partnership between the city, Long Plain First Nation, and Dakota Plains First Nation—as an example of an event that benefits the city noting that hotels are already fully booked. The city has previously hosted major events like the Brier Cup and the Centennial Cup.
Masi expressed that provincial approval for the bylaw took too long, with the first reading occurring in December 2023, nearly two years ago. Masi is hopeful the final provincial sign-on will arrive in the coming weeks.
For more on city council, visit www.city-plap.com.
— Renée Lilley is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Portage Graphic. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
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