(Quebec) After the Îles-de-la-Madeleine, another municipality is making an about-face on the thorny issue of tourist fees.
The City of Percé has chosen to drop in its current form the fee it wanted to charge tourists who spend in its businesses. This turnaround puts an end – for the moment – to years of “conflicts” which undermined the municipality of the famous rock.
Percé was the first municipality in Quebec to use new powers granted in 2017 by the government to allow cities to collect royalties. These new powers should in theory allow cities to replenish their depleted coffers.
The Gaspé municipality has therefore decided to implement a tourist fee in September 2021. The first version of the regulations invited merchants to collect $1 each time a visitor purchased more than $20 in their business.
But several of them refused to collaborate. Traders took the matter to court. The Superior Court ruled in their favor in June 2023, declaring that the fee put in place by Percé was not legal.
The absent mayor
Mayor Cathy Poirier then decided, supported by some of the councilors, to appeal the case.
But Tuesday evening in Percé, the councilors voted by a majority (5 to 1) to abandon the appeal. Unusual fact: Mayor Poirier, who was in open conflict with several merchants and wanted to go through with the fee, was absent from the council.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The mayor of Percé, Cathy Poirier
She was also absent during the April meeting, when the councilors overturned another of her decisions, namely the closure of the tourist information office this summer. The Press tried on Wednesday to contact Mme Poirier on his cell phone, without success.
The council’s decision to abandon the appeal process is nothing less than the death warrant for the levy in its current form. However, councilors noted that the levy was still necessary, but should take a new form.
“I know we need a fee. But the way it was created, without any negotiation with the merchants… I want to put an end to that, negotiate with the merchants who are in good faith and come to an agreement,” declared municipal councilor Michel Rail, when it comes to voting Tuesday evening.
“I find it a really sad situation, months later, the conflicts that it created, the expenses for the city and the merchants… indirectly, it was all the citizens of Percé who paid for it,” he said. she declared city councilor Shanna Roussy, before voting in favor of the resolution to end the legal process.
The spokesperson for the committee of citizens and merchants of Percé asked that the municipality reimburse the legal costs incurred by the opponents.
“Just since the appeal procedures, the citizen merchant committee has received attorney fees of nearly $35,000. This adds to an even higher bill for the first trial, which proved us right. Could the council consider compensation? », asked Jonathan Massé before the council.
Necessary royalties, according to the UMQ
Percé’s decision comes a few weeks after the about-face of the Îles-de-la-Madeleine. The municipality announced in mid-May that its new Archipel Pass, a $30 tourist fee, would finally be optional.
The municipality wanted to collect these amounts itself from tourists, on an online platform. “The visitor will pay for their Archipel Pass via a secure payment platform generating a confirmation QR code which will be validated when leaving the territory,” the municipality announced in April.
The idea that citizens must show proof of address or a QR code caused discontent among many Madelinots.
In the case of Percé, the Superior Court declared the royalty illegal. According to the court, the law does not allow municipalities to unilaterally transform merchants into fee collectors. She must have their agreement, which was not the case in Percé.
“If the municipality cannot collect the fee itself, it can make an agreement with a third party or the State for the collection of the fee,” noted judge Isabelle Germain.
Percé initially appealed the decision. Other municipalities, including Tadoussac, were impatiently awaiting the decision of the Court of Appeal before implementing their own fees.
The about-faces of Percé and the Islands will certainly cool down the municipalities which wanted to implement a fee.
The Union of Municipalities of Quebec (UMQ) recalls that its members seek to “diversify sources of revenue” and maintain their infrastructure “in a context where costs are increasing.”
“The regulatory fee, a fiscal power of municipalities, makes it possible to achieve this objective. The Union fully supports municipalities that wish to use this power,” adds the UMQ in an email sent to The Press.