You may or may not know that the province is changing the rules for short-term rentals. There is a new Short Term Rental Accommodation Act which aims to limit short-term rentals in favour of returning second homes etc. to long-term rentals. The goal is to reduce the housing crisis.

The main target of this Act is municipalities with greater than 10,000 population, like Salmon Arm for instance. But this does not let everyone else off the hook. Short-term rental unit owners and their advertising ‘platforms’ (AirB&B, Kijiji etc.) will be required to register their units with the Province in early 2025. Also, the province is increasing the amount of fines that could be charged to a non-compliant unit owner, removing legal-non-conforming status for those that have been short-term renting for a long time, and implementing a provincial compliance-and-enforcement unit. There are other challenges built into this Act as well and what applies to one may be different than for others. We, the CSRD, are still waiting for the Province to flesh out everything they have in mind.

If you own a short-term rental unit there is more information at the CSRD website and the Provincial website. Links are below. Information from the planning department of the CSRD is as follows:

It is recommended that the owners/operators of short-term rentals contact the province and/or the booking platform(s) to confirm what information they are required to provide to the booking platforms.  The contact information for the Province is ServiceBC.

Upon request, the CSRD Planning Department can provide written confirmation if a short-term rental is permitted (or not) by the zoning for a specific property.    Property owners/short-term rental operators can contact the Planning Department at plan@csrd.bc.ca or 250.832.8194 to receive this confirmation. If a short-term rental is not permitted, the Planning Department can explain the options for a property owner/short term rental operator to seek approval for a Temporary Use Permit from the CSRD to allow a short-term rental for their property. 

More information:
Short-Term Rentals | CSRD, BC
B.C.’s short-term rental legislation – Province of British Columbia (gov.bc.ca)

This is a huge step for the Province and while I understand their goal, the challenge for somewhere like the North Shuswap is that so much of our economy and businesses depend on summer tourists, many of which stay in short-term rentals. If the owners of those rentals find these new rules to be too onerous, or expensive to implement, or otherwise undesirable, we may find that we will take another hit to our summer tourism sector.