There is a lot of talk in our Bow Valley municipalities around the topic of sustainable funding, so much so that as a buzzword it really lacks a quantifiable definition.
Tourism communities want sustainable funding, all municipalities in Alberta want sustainable funding, Canmore Business and Tourism has struggled with finding sustainable funding for years.
It is no surprise to us, or should it be to you, that governments and agencies want money and a tap that never turns off is the definition of sustainable. Guaranteed revenues to fund operations is like a municipal happy place that officials imagine when they close their eyes and dream of the perfect future.
But that money comes from somewhere, and more often than not it comes out of the pockets of residents and businesses. It thus becomes critical that we as citizens of our communities in the Bow Valley delve deeper behind a phrase that can be innocuous in its vagueness – sustainable funding.
Municipalities in Alberta, and more importantly resort communities like Canmore and Banff, are chomping at the bit for sustainable funding. Right now, municipalities have but a handful of ways to bring in guaranteed revenue and the main one is property taxes. Property taxes are the one way towns and cities can realize revenues to fund operations and capital projects.
There are of course grant funds that come into our valley each year, but those are not guaranteed. They fluctuate depending upon the political wind at both the provincial and federal levels. And of course, regardless of where they come from they are still public funds from coffers supplied by everyday people and industry.
So what would be sustainable funding for a community like Canmore, for example? It is clear that being able to charge a tax on hotel room stays for rooms in Canmore is on the wish list of our municipal leaders. The government already has a three per cent pillow tax on all rooms, which currently funds Travel Alberta a crown corporation. Banff Lake Louise Tourism is funded through the exact same mechanism placed on hotels in those communities, a reality made possible by the fact that it is in a national park. BLLT is not annually appearing in front of Banff council asking for sustainable funding – they have it.
That brings us to Canmore Business and Tourism – the eastern side of the valley’s own version of BLLT – a destination marketing organization.
Over the past 10 years, CBT has evolved in leaps and bounds, but has continually been challenged along the way with funding sources. At one point, local hotels voluntarily placed a three per cent surcharge on their hotel rooms (representing close to 75 per cent of hotel rooms in the community) through a destination marketing fund managed by the local hotel association. That has buoyed CBT and provided the ability to see its budget go from somewhere in the range of $500,000 a year to $2 million.
CBT has suggested funding increase through the business registry, a notion that was accompanied with considerable backlash from the business community.
CBT has appeared in front of council on numerous occasions asking political leaders to help solve their sustainable funding issue, because depending on a voluntary hotel levy is not, as the buzzword goes, sustainable. In fact, that source of funding is slowly eroding away, as the community and council will soon come to hear themselves. Sustainable funding is the buzzword of our times here in the valley and the discussion has just begun.
