After a 'long journey,' Charlottetown's short-term rental licensing rules are now in effect

The City of Charlottetown's licensing rules for short-term rentals are now in effect, setting out the blueprint to both license STRs and fully enforce regulations regarding them in the capital.

The licensing rules come into effect as of Wednesday, Nov. 1. Deputy Mayor Alanna Jankov says it's been a "long journey" to get short-term rental licensing and enforcement in place in the capital.

Cory Pater, with the P.E.I. Fight for Affordable Housing, said he's waiting to see how strict the city is in enforcing STRs in Charlottetown.

He is excited, though, to finally see the licensing rules come into effect.

"It's a day that we've been waiting for … for a very long time," Pater said. "Once everything is in place, it should probably catch the most egregious of the offenders when it comes to short-term rentals."

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What's new?

The city's Short-Term Rental Bylaw — introduced as an amendment to the city's zoning and development bylaw — came into effect on March 28, 2023, after months of deliberations and years of conversations inside council chambers and at public meetings.

Council initially amended the zoning and development bylaw in February of 2022, so that short-term rentals could be regulated, but gave property owners a one-year grace period to adjust.

The bylaw, focused on enforcement, attempts to pull back the volume of short-term rentals in Charlottetown and see more units go back to the long-term rental market, as STRs must now all be in owners' primary residences. Separate apartments cannot be rented out as STRs, and owners are not allowed to have multiple properties.

After that initial bylaw came into effect in March, there was a six-month period to develop the licensing bylaw, which "needed some work," Jankov said.

Those changes are now in effect as of Nov. 1, which Jankov says adds teeth to the bylaw. They include:

• Mandatory licensing of all short-term rentals in the city.
• A new bylaw enforcement officer to oversee and enforce rules around short-term rentals.
• A short-term rental registry.
• Inspections of short-term rental properties, following complaint-driven reports or as a result of random inspection.
• Fines ranging between $200 and $10,000 and/or revoked licences for non-compliant properties.

Jankov said the competition has closed for the new bylaw enforcement officer and the person should be hired soon.

Before that person is brought into the fold, the city has the capacity to enforce its rules through other bylaw officers — but it won't have someone specifically handling short-term rentals until the new person is in the job.

Pater said he's trying to stay optimistic that the new licensing rules will lead to stricter enforcement, but it comes down to how serious the city wants to take the situation around short-term rentals.

"We need to crack down as hard as we can on these things," Pater said.

"As long as these are allowed to operate, you're letting people flout zoning laws and essentially turn chunks of residential areas into commercial hotel tourist areas. It's bad for communities, it's bad for the housing stock, it's just not a great situation." 

In response to emailed questions, Nathan Rotman, policy lead for Airbnb in Canada, said "We continue to work with both the City of Charlottetown and the province to promote compliance under local and provincial rules while also supporting Airbnb hosts looking to earn additional income by welcoming visitors to P.E.I."

Pater also raised concerns about other municipalities and if they'd develop their own bylaws, or whether the province would play a role in seeing similar rules roll out across the province.

In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for the provincial government said "The province believes that individual municipalities have the right to choose how best to regulate short-term rentals. A one size fits all provincial solution does not meet the needs of individual municipalities."

We need to crack down as hard as we can on these things.— Cory Pater, P.E.I. Fight for Affordable Housing

The provincial spokesperson did tell CBC News that government is planning to introduce legislation in the spring sitting that would allow them to de-list properties that are unlicensed on P.E.I.

"Tourism P.E.I. has developed a productive working relationship with the larger platform operators, such as Airbnb, VRBO," said a spokesperson for the provincial government.

"We are working with the platform operators in the development of upcoming amendments to the Tourism Industry Act that would allow us to de-list properties that are unlicensed. We plan to bring forward these changes to the legislature during the spring sitting next year."