2024-04-09 23:38:55
The municipality of L’Anse-Saint-Jean, in Saguenay, is finally moving forward with its tourist royalty project and will now impose a tax of $300 per room for owners of tourist accommodation.
The regulation is far from making anyone happy as the municipal council was booed Monday evening. Elected officials are moving forward despite all the criticism that has been voiced publicly.
Some owners believe that their reality is not taken into account and would have appreciated being consulted in order to provide possible solutions. “It’s terrible how they have no knowledge of tourism and accommodation. With lots of prejudices that we are rich, that we make lots of money and that we don’t work, that it costs 100 dollars per night for the rooms. We are down to 25, 30 dollars an hour to have the rooms cleaned,” said Mario Dufour, owner of the Auberge des Cévennes which has 15 rooms.
The fee must finance tourist and sports infrastructures, including the Mont-Édouard ski resort, which is in full recovery following serious financial difficulties.
The person who heads the fundraising campaign for the mountain believes that the fee was inevitable. “If we want to build something, we have no choice, it has to hurt everyone a little. We can no longer tax citizens,” said Jacques Chouinard.
Some owners consider it unreasonable to pay this fee, which must largely finance the activities of Mont-Édouard, when they do not operate during the winter.
The person in charge of the fundraising campaign points out that it is not just tourists from Mont Édouard who visit the municipality. “I’m at the marina in the summer and it happens by the ton. It consumes and creates waste. The municipality, when it takes them to the landfill, it’s by the ton,” said Jacques Chouinard.
The mayor of the municipality, Richard Perron, explained that a working committee would be set up with two representatives from the hotel world among others. The regulations might be modified. The elected official did not respond to interview requests from TVA Nouvelles.
A group of owners plans to validate the settlement with a lawyer in order to assess the possibility of initiating a legal challenge.
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