After a year and a half of gestation, the tourist fee is about to become reality in the Îles-de-la-Madeleine. From 1er May, anyone aged 13 and over will have to pay $30 plus taxes for a stay of more than 24 hours on the archipelago, up to $100 plus taxes per family.
The municipality of Îles-de-la-Madeleine estimates that this levy, still unprecedented in Quebec, will raise one million dollars annually. This amount will be used to fill the Sustainable Territory Management Fund, a pot dedicated to maintaining and improving tourist infrastructure, protecting this fragile territory and sound management of residual materials during the high tourist season.
Obtaining the Archipelago Pass will be necessary from 1er May to October 14 for anyone staying more than 24 hours in the Îles-de-la-Madeleine. Payment must be made online, via a secure platform, before the end of the passage to the Islands to obtain a QR code that the authorities can check when leaving the territory.
Violators will face a penalty of up to $1,000.
People who make several stays in the archipelago will have to pay the fee for each entry. However, they will be able to request a retroactive reimbursement from the second visit to only pay once for the new puncture.
Owners of primary and secondary residences on the Magdalen Islands will benefit from an exemption, unlike temporary workers, who will have to pay the requested amount. if their stay ends before October 14.
The municipality calculates that tourists stay on average 10 nights on the Islands. “La Passe Archipel,” she maintains in a press release, therefore represents a sum of $3 per day to benefit from all that the Islands have to offer while elsewhere, other cities or municipalities set up parking or services paying. »
The authorities plan to carry out random checks at entry and exit points, such as the airport and the port, to monitor the application of the regulation. The municipality says it is firstly counting on people’s good faith and will rely on an information campaign to explain the ins and outs of the new fee.
The details of the new by-law were the subject of an extraordinary meeting of the municipal council on Wednesday in the Îles-de-la-Madeleine. Around ten people attended the meeting and questioned the elected officials for almost an hour.
For Jacky Poirier, spokesperson for the Yes to Responsible Municipal Management committee, the vagueness surrounding the implementation of the fee amounts to “improvisation”. He also fears that the drain will discourage tourists from visiting the island.
“It’s one more drop that can make the glass overflow,” he said, “with the increase in the cost of gasoline and everything. We must not trivialize the $30. »
“We have been developing regulations for a year and a half,” replied Mayor Antonin Valiquette. It looks simple, but it’s quite complicated thank you. […] We would have liked to be able to come out, day 1, with a beautiful applicable model, straight away, which has never been done before, but no. We have to go little by little. »
“I’m not embarrassed by the $30,” added another Madelinot. It is not always up to citizens to pay for infrastructure. »
A lady expressed her questions about the relevance of collecting the fee from people who go to the bedside of a sick person or who attend a funeral. “I don’t think they will benefit much from the recreational tourism infrastructure,” she said.
“Understand the difficulty of making exceptional cases like that,” replied Mayor Valiquette. There, it’s starting to be very complicated to manage administratively,” he added, insisting that the measure will enter its first year of implementation and that adjustments will remain possible along the way.
The municipal council must approve the new by-law at the next meeting, scheduled for April 9.