Tourism Minister Caroline Proulx is preparing to change the Tourist Accommodation Act to include, in particular, the possibility of distributing fines to housing rental platforms. But she says it’s up to cities to attack Airbnbs in no-go areas, not the Quebec government.
“Outside the perimeters where short-term tourist accommodation is permitted by the municipalities, it is their responsibility to investigate, it is up to them to denounce the illegality of this type of accommodation there”, affirmed the Minister Proulx, during a press briefing Monday afternoon in front of the ruins of the building in Old Montreal where a violent fire killed at least seven people last Thursday.
Several of the missing people had rented accommodation on Airbnb in this building, although municipal regulations prohibit this type of accommodation throughout Old Montreal.
A little earlier, the Mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante, had called on Quebec to increase the number of Revenu Quebec inspectors dedicated to the application of the Tourist Accommodation Actbelieving it is their job to crack down on illegal Airbnbs.
Butme Proulx contradicted her: Revenu Québec inspectors only inspect dwellings duly registered with the Corporation de l’industrie touristique du Québec (CITQ), and not apartments where illegal tourist accommodation is she explained. “If they are illegal, we don’t know they exist,” she said.
She added that, in her opinion, there were enough inspectors to monitor the application of the law.
The Minister indicated that she would meet with Mayor Plante to find a solution “so that this type of event does not happen again”.
Among other changes to the law, Caroline Proulx indicated that the photo of the certificate of registration with the CITQ would be required to be published on any advertisement for tourist accommodation.
The law already requires landlords of tourist accommodation to publish their CITQ number, but the vast majority of listings found on Airbnb do not comply with this requirement, and are outside areas where municipal zoning allows the operation of “tourist residences”.
Minister Proulx did not want to say whether she intended to require that Airbnb only publish housing advertisements with a CITQ registration number, as requested by Mayor Plante.