After opting in, Tofino council asks staff to review opting out of new B.C. short-term rental rules next year
After much debate, District of Tofino council has asked staff to look into potentially opting out of B.C.’s new-short term rental rules, after the community opted in to the regulations last year.
In March 2024, the district made headlines for being the first municipality to opt in to B.C.’s new short-term accommodations act, despite not being required to do so.
Communities were exempt if they were so-called “resort areas,” or if they were municipalities with populations under 10,000 residents and not within 15 kilometres of a larger municipality.
While these communities were exempt, they could opt in to the new short-term rental requirements if they chose to, which Tofino did so last year.
But, at a council meeting on March 11, council asked staff to “prepare a consultation and engagement plan regarding opting out of the principal residence requirement under Bill 35 in 2026 and report back to Council prior to February 1, 2026.”
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The goal of the new legislation was to free up properties for long-term rental housing, and it’s a motivation that Mayor Dan Law said he supports.
“The idea is that houses are primarily for living and the problem in Tofino is that’s not the case,” he said at the council meeting.
“Investment homes, we see over and over – hundreds, 100, 150 anyway – are primarily to make money, and that is the epitome of the financialization and commercialization of housing, that’s what it is,” he said.
Edited by Victoria Watcher, 26 March 2025 - 03:47 AM.