St. Catharines pauses heavy-handed B&B crackdown; FOI documents show meetings between Mayor Siscoe and hotel industry lobbyists

After public backlash and media scrutiny, St. Catharines council on Monday night paused the previous enforcement of a bylaw to license bed and breakfasts. 

The controversial bylaw was implemented in April of last year and required all bed and breakfasts to obtain a license in order to operate within city limits.  

It was the first time a license had been needed and none of the many operators or former operators contacted by The Pointer were opposed to the plan. To all of them the controversy arose when the City started employing a “draconian” enforcement regime they say was badly mismanaged and left them feeling “hunted” by their own municipality.  

The city issued fines starting at  $1,000-a-day to small home-based businesses that had been operating legally and by all accounts professionally, until the new bylaw mandated they acquire a license, but the City failed to notify them of that requirement. 

With Monday’s decision, council has not repealed the short-term rental bylaw, however, elected officials have halted the “proactive enforcement” approach that saw $1,000-a-day fines handed out to B&B owners who did not register for a license. Those who spoke to The Pointer were given no notice, and did not even know about the licensing requirement which came into effect last year. They were expected to find out about it on their own and were shocked when $1,000 fines started showing up in their mail for each day they did not have a license. Couples who co-owned their properties were given two $1,000 fines each day, one with each of their names on it. 

Under provincial law, the outrageous fines are likely illegal, as legislation makes it clear that such policies have to be reasonable.

B&B owners were angered when many learned through The Pointer’s reporting that Mayor Mat Siscoe had met with powerful hotel industry lobbyists and publicly admitted they wanted to see the end of the short-term rental industry.

At a council meeting in April 2023, while discussing the implementation of the controversial bylaw, Mayor Siscoe remarked that, “Having sat in a number of meetings with representatives from the hotel/motel industry, I think they would prefer that short-term rentals did not exist. At the last meeting they were quite pleased with the enforcement activities that our staff have undertaken… . They were quite happy with the direction the City was taking.” While he met with Niagara’s powerful hotel industry lobby, the mayor did not mention whether or not he held similar meetings with citizens who own and operate B&Bs or other short-term rentals.

The City claimed the crackdown was intended to weed out bad actors who rent out units but do not comply with community standards and rules meant to protect the public interest. 

Instead, to operationalize the new policy, revenues have been taken from unsuspecting B&B owners, many who have been operating upstanding businesses for years, and now feel targeted in a blatant money grab aimed at helping large hotel operators who do not want competition from short-term rentals. 

Some B&B owners were forced to shut down, others are demanding the amount paid in fines back, now that the shocking policy has been halted, and others are vowing to take further action against the mayor and the City. 

Staff admitted the almost $500,000 in fines raised so far was needed to run the heavy-handed enforcement policy.

The Pointer has verified that individual penalties ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 were issued to homeowners and over the course of 18 months the city collected $491,000 in fines and forced dozens of home-based small businesses to shutter their doors permanently.   

None of the homeowners interviewed received any direct notice of the new bylaw, only becoming aware when they were issued penalties. The City called the revenue recovery plan the “Cadillac option”; those interviewed by The Pointer had other names for it. The common thread in all the cases appears to be that all the penalized B&B owners advertised on Airbnb and once the City enacted enforcement of the bylaw, staff went to the popular website to search for all listings in the City, then went after those who did not have a license.

In comments to The Pointer, Airbnb stated that: 

• Last year, residents in St. Catharines hosted guests an average of approximately 50 nights each.
• The vast majority of hosts (84 percent) rent just one unit, while approximately 13 percent rent two.

The data highlights that the vast majority of hosts in St. Catharines are everyday residents who reside in their dwelling and are using their home for supplemental income. Many are approaching retirement age and had been planning on using the extra income to help them age in place. These are also, by and large, the people who appear to have been targeted by the City.

While Monday’s revision to the bylaw puts a temporary end to the aggressive practices employed by the City, for many of those affected it does not go far enough.   

Alice Anne Hart feels it is too little too late for her and is “dismayed and disappointed” by Mayor Siscoe’s response to what she calls “extreme measures used against short-term rental operators”. Hart had been occasionally renting a room as a bed and breakfast in her home in order to supplement and secure her retirement and feels the City not only forced her out of business, but made her pay more than $2,000 she feels should be returned to her. She suggests it was done to appease powerful hotel owners and in so doing the City has displayed “incompetence, indifference and arrogance” to its own citizens. She said it begs the question, "Is this my city?", and says she does not believe the mayor when he says there is no way for the funds collected to be returned.  

Alice Anne Hart outside her St. Catharines home.

(Ed Smith/The Pointer Files)

Her comment regarding appeasing hoteliers was after Siscoe reported to council that he has had a “number” of meetings with hotel/motel lobbyists and while they would prefer that short-term rentals did not exist, they are “quite pleased” with the enforcement policies of the City to crackdown on the B&B sector. Information received through a freedom of information request verifies that the mayor started communications with hotel industry lobbyists before he came to office. A group reached out to him on November 11, 2022, requesting to meet. Siscoe directed staff to set up the meeting. He took office ten days later and that first meeting with the lobbyist group took place two weeks later, on December 7, 2022, only two weeks after he took office as mayor.

Norm and Jana Koop are also not satisfied with the announced change to the policy. They echo the comments of “too little too late” as they have not only been forced out of business by what they describe as the City’s “witch hunt on tax paying and law abiding citizens”, they feel their reputation has been impugned by the actions taken by the municipality. 

They want to know exactly how this was allowed to happen. They want to know “where is the accountability, how far up the chain does this go, and how is it possible that the mayor can honestly state there is no way to undo the damage done?” Jana pointed out that, “Most people, given the chance, would submit to licensing, providing the process was fair and reasonable and proper notification was given.” As a result of the City’s actions the couple has been forced out of business with their home-based bed and breakfast now sitting vacant. The income derived from that small business was supposed to help them remain in their home through their retirement.

The Pointer reached out to Mayor Siscoe and asked what specific sections in law or policy led him to state there was no way for the City to return funds that were collected through the bylaw. He has not responded. The City has a firmly established system for waiving fees for any reason supported by council and it seems plausible that if the political will existed it could be used as an incentive to encourage those who were negatively affected to reapply and mitigate their expenses. 

Gabriella Guo has not been convinced by anything the mayor has said on this issue. The single mother was fined $10,000 by the City for listing her short-term rental for ten days (one thousand dollars for each day) without a license, a license she had no idea she was required to have. In response to this week’s changes to the bylaw she states:

“I’m very disappointed by the mayor’s inaction on repairing the damage created by the STR bylaw. He admits that it was a problem. He motioned the council for change. But stops at remediating the financial distress caused by this faulty bylaw. 

“His repetitive emphasis on ‘no mechanism’ to go back and reimburse the penalty sounds bullshit to me. There is always a way. It is his job to find a way. That’s what he is paid to do. Failing to do it is an infraction of public trust.”

The fines issued by the City of St. Catharines to Gabriella Guo. 

(Ed Smith/The Pointer Files)

There is also the case of Dan and Anita Skinner. Despite feeling attacked by a system they say “reeks of meanness”, the couple has successfully re-opened their bed and breakfast after being forced to close for five months. The 49-year married couple say they are pleased with the outcome of the new changes announced on Monday night, but overall were not pleased with a demonstrated failure by the mayor and so many councillors to understand the nuances of this policy. 

The bed and breakfast run by Dan and Anita Skinner was one of many targeted by the City of St. Catharines.

(Ed Smith/The Pointer Files)

As proof, they point to Councillor Caleb Ratzlaff’s comments in which he compared the situation in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver to the situation in St. Catharines, implying that short-term rentals are contributing to the housing availability crisis, an assertion that flies in the face of the staff report, based on local data, that was provided to council on May 27. It illustrated the lack of impact STRs have on the local long term rental market. Councillor Ratzlaff also incorrectly stated that the St. Catharines policy was not overly crippling to home owners as it could be because, according to him, the St. Catharines policy levied fines of $1,000 “per month”. The councillor was wrong, the St. Catharines policy was $1,000 per day, per owner on each property, and therefore, in the case of a husband and wife, the fine in some cases reported by The Pointer was $2,000 per day, per B&B.  

The Skinners take Mayor Siscoe at his word, though, after he told them there is no legal mechanism for B&B owners to be compensated for the exorbitant fines. They expressed satisfaction at just being back in business and having it all behind them.

This is not the final word on short-term rentals and the heavy handed approach to bylaw enforcement. A report is expected before the end of September and only after council addresses that report will the final policy on B&Bs be set.  

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