Percé has set up a tourist fee on Sunday, which does not suit everyone in the village. Some, including SÉPAQ, are demanding a moratorium on its application for the sake of fairness with the Gaspésiens, who live on the outskirts of Percé but who will have to submit to the new puncture in the same way as tourists from outside the peninsula.
Since Sunday, each transaction over $20 made in Percé has been increased by $1. The objective of this tourist fee is to share the burden of the infrastructures devoted to hosting visitors, the construction and maintenance of which cost Percé nearly $800,000 annually.
A heavy price to pay for the 3,000 inhabitants and their municipality, which welcome 500,000 tourists each year but whose budget is limited to 7.7 million dollars.
Thanks to the royalty, Mayor Cathy Poirier plans to add $1.5 million each year to her city’s coffers – enough to develop and operate trails, parks, beaches, marinas, etc. frequented by tourists.
Dispute of traders
A group of about forty merchants from Percé decries the fee, the application of which is their responsibility.
“Merchants, without having been consulted beforehand, will be obliged to be the ones who will collect the tourist fee under penalty of hefty fines handed over by the City of Percé in the event of refusal”, deplores Jean-François Gagné, a committee spokespersons.
Olivier Lafontaine, another spokesperson for the committee, told the To have to that SÉPAQ itself, responsible for Parc national de l’Île-Bonaventure-et-du-Rocher-Percé, raises several questions about the legality of the by-law, in particular the obligation it imposes on merchants to collect a fee for the municipality.
According to a legal document shared with the To have to by Mr. Lafontaine, SÉPAQ considers it “appropriate to delay the application of the new regulations.” The spokesperson for the society of outdoor establishments of Quebec, Simon Boivin, indicates that the SÉPAQ remains “in discussion with the municipality about the royalty for tourists”, specifying not to want to comment further on the file “for the ‘actual hour”.
Merchants who contravene the new regulations are liable to a fine of $2,000. A second offense will result in a penalty twice as high if it is committed the same year as the first. The committee, which brings together some thirty business people, denounces a “disguised and illegal tax” which is far from applying according to him, only to user-payers. To refine the measure, its members are asking to suspend the application of the fee.
The purchase of tobacco, alcohol or cannabis, as well as goods exempt from taxes, are exempt from the measure.
Everything else, or almost, will have to submit to it – and this is among other things where the shoe pinches, according to many.
Target tourists, not neighbors
“The principle of the city, I find it correct, underlines Patrice Dansereau, owner of the café-bookstore Nath Compagnie. But the regulations deserve to be reviewed to be more suitable. »
In his opinion, the royalty could harm businesses like his, in particular because a visitor does not have to come from very far to have to pay the royalty. A Gaspesian from Chandler or Gaspé, who lives less than 15 km from Percé, will have to pay it. It will be necessary to reside in Percé and present a local citizen card – the bciti + – to escape it.
“In my business, my own labor often comes from outside. Each time my employees go to buy a lunch for more than $20, they will have to pay an additional dollar,” laments Mr. Dansereau.
Its clientele also comes mostly from outside the territory of Percé. The owner of one of the few bookstores open year-round in Gaspésie wonders if the royalty will discourage people from frequenting his business.
“The consumer may be tempted to order his book online, from a company that I will not name,” he believes.
For Mr. Dansereau, the municipality could have targeted tourists more, by focusing its new perception on the hotel and restaurant industries, for example.
“Currently, a night at $500 will bring in a dollar for the city – the same amount as me, when I sell a book at $20,” adds Mr. Dansereau.
He believes that the measure, in effect year-round, unnecessarily penalizes local businesses and their regular customers. “We do nothing to encourage people to stay open year-round,” emphasizes Mr. Dansereau. A fee applied in the summer, for example, during peak tourist periods, would have made more sense, in his view.
The municipality of Percé did not call back The duty at the time these lines were written.
With Isabelle Porter