Despite the dissatisfaction aroused by the application of a tourist fee whose collection is the responsibility of merchants, the mayor of Percé, Cathy Poirier, is staying the course and defending her new by-law, convinced that it benefits her entire village.
Since Sunday, $1 has been added to tourists’ bills for each transaction of $20 or more made in Percé businesses. The amount collected must be used to develop and maintain tourist infrastructure under the aegis of the municipality, visited by half a million tourists each year.
“All previous administrations have tried to find solutions to balance this responsibility,” maintains Cathy Poirier. Upkeep of the six stops, the tourist information office, the eleven toilet blocks, the 72 km of walking path and the 250 daily garbage cans costs Percé $800,000 annually, whose budget does not reach $8 million. .
“That $800,000 was entirely up to the citizens,” says Ms. Poirier. It is to give a little oxygen to the city’s finances that it invoked article of law 122 allowing cities to increase their autonomy by granting them the power to demand regulatory fees.
The municipal administration hopes to raise $1.5 million a year thanks to this new collection. According to the mayor, the fee is the best solution to lighten the burden that Percé must bear to properly welcome its visitors.
“We could have increased trade taxes,” adds Ms. Poirier. They bring in about $830,000 a year right now; it would have been necessary to double them to reach our budget. The administration quickly abandoned the idea, worried that merchants would hesitate to settle in Percé because of the higher taxation than elsewhere.
Fronde of traders
However, it is the merchants who are leading the rebellion against the new fee. Responsible for collecting it, they question its legality and are concerned that the City assumes the right to consult their books of accounts to ensure that they collect and give back the sums collected.
“If we make regulations without the power to sanction, they are bogus,” continues Ms. Poirier. Before going into the books, let’s ask some questions. We don’t wanna play police [avec nos commerçants] ; we want to help them. »
Some wonder why the levy does not only apply to industries that benefit the most from tourists, such as hotels or restaurants. “We didn’t want to target one sector more than another,” replied the mayor, adding to act according to a principle of “fairness”.
Others find it illogical to have to collect the annual fee when only 15,000 tourists visit Percé in winter. Why, ask several shopkeepers, do Gaspesians living a few kilometers from the village also have to pay it?
The mayor of Percé says she is “open” to revising her regulations to improve them. “Clearly, a regulation changes,” she says. On the principle of the fee, however, it remains immutable: “we are not going to make a moratorium or suspend its application”, she decides.
SÉPAQ, responsible for the Île-Bonaventure-et-du-Rocher-Percé National Park, also expressed its reservations to the City. Discussions are continuing between the two entities, explains the mayor. The main point in dispute concerns how to collect the regulatory fee when tourists have an annual pass, she said.
Percé becomes one of the first localities to diversify its collection power under section 122 in Quebec.
The municipal world, maintains the mayor, supports his approach. “A lot of destinations are looking at us saying: ‘it’s fantastic’,” she adds, pointing out that the Union of Quebec Municipalities has also expressed its support for a fee that gives Percé more autonomy.
Tuesday, a stormy meeting took place at the town hall of Percé between sixty dissatisfied citizens and the municipal administration. The mayor says she has heard their grievances, but believes she has the necessary legitimacy to move forward.
“We did it on purpose to present our draft by-law before the November 7 election,” underlines Ms. Poirier. We didn’t want to pull that out of our hat after people got their say. »
She does not exclude that the amount collected thanks to the royalty allows to agree to “a slight reduction in taxes” in Percé, for the benefit, she concludes, of its 3000 citizens.