Despite opposition from some, at its Tuesday, October 14, 2025, meeting, Lake of Bays Council approved the bylaw to implement a Municipal Accommodation Tax (MAT), effective January 1, 2026.
Patti Dryden, Owner of Tally Ho Lakefront Cottage Rentals, appealed to council to reconsider the tax before voting on the bylaw to implement it.
“During this challenging economic time, when both the Federal and Provincial governments are encouraging Canadians to shop locally and travel within Canada, it is difficult to understand why our municipality would take measures that discourage local tourism. It is no secret that the Lake of Bays Planning Department is neither easy nor helpful to work with and has been quite costly in many of the initiatives we have undertaken to grow our business,” she stated.
“The Township of Lake of Bays hired an economic developer to support and encourage local businesses, yet this tax seems counterproductive to that goal. We respectfully ask the council to reconsider this decision, as the impact on local businesses will be significant compared to the limited benefit to the municipality. I would also like to invite any council member to visit our business and meet some of our guests, who—like each of you—are affected by even the slightest price increase,” she added.
CouncilLor Mike Peppard said he, too, was skeptical about the accommodation tax at first, but has since changed his point of view.
“After listeing to multiple conversations around how much we can innovate in terms of tourism and how it will help, I’m now convinced that the tax will help us generally all around so I’m still in favour of it,” he said.
When it came to a vote, the council passed the bylaw, thereby implementing the tax, which will come into effect on the first day of 2026. Councillor Nancy Tapley declared a pecuniary conflict for reasons of employment.
The Township of Lake of Bays joins Huntsville, Bracebridge, and Gravenhurst in implementing such a tax. Guests staying at hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, and short-term rental accommodations of 30 days or less in Lake of Bays will be subject to a four percent (4%) MAT.
A media release issued by the Township before the meeting even ended, notes that the MAT program was shaped by extensive public consultations with local accommodation providers, as well as input from an advisory group.
According to the Township of Lake of Bays:
As part of the program, half of all MAT proceeds will be managed by a newly established independent Lake of Bays Destination Marketing Organization (DMO). Led by local accommodation providers, the DMO will direct funding to priority tourism initiatives based on a forthcoming tourism strategy. The remaining fifty per cent (50%) of revenue will be retained by the Township to support economic development, recreation, and other tourism-related initiatives that benefit residents, businesses, and visitors alike.
Key points:
- MAT collection begins January 1, 2026.
- The four percent (4%) tax rate applies only to the room cost and must be shown on guests’ invoice.
- Accommodation providers are responsible for collecting and remitting the tax on a quarterly basis.
- The first deadline for remittance is April 30, 2026.
- Bookings made before January 1, 2026 are not subject to the tax.
An FAQ is available to help ensure a smooth launch for accommodation providers. Residents and stakeholders are encouraged to learn more, review the MAT Bylaw, and access the FAQ at lakeofbays.on.ca/mat.
“We’ve taken our time with this process because we wanted to get it right and ensure everyone’s voice was heard. What began as a conversation in 2021 has become a meaningful way for visitors to support the place they want to visit,” said Morgan Lonsdale, Economic Development Officer for the Township of Lake of Bays.
“The MAT will open a stream that helps fund local events, bring fresh energy to the hearts of our hamlets, and give the community the resources it needs to discover and define Lake of Bays’ unique tourism needs and culture,” she added.
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Many of these small Towns have counterproductive by-laws which discourage tourism, rentals and building. Do they really rhink handfuls of elderly full time residents will keep the Town afloat if tourists stop showing up?Just anothet tax grab.
Why not another 4% on all business? This is ridiculous. Business can spend that 4% in their own advertising and will do much better. Businesses do not need more taxes, more burocrats…let them do what they know how to do. Municipalities are a burden for communities. These times are times to easy the burden.
I am not in favor of the current MAT tax and here is why.
First, it is cheery picking the easy fruit. Resorts and short term private rentals are (at least if the STR’s have legally registered already with the township) easy to find. There are very few resorts left in Lake of Bays anyway as the economics of a traditional resort are no longer favorable.
ALL the businesses that deal with tourists benefit from those tourists so my opinion is that all of these business should also charge the MAT tax and thus, the tax rate should be much lower than 4%. All the boutique stores, tourism attractions, heck essentially ALL the stores and gas stations in the area benefit yet none of them collects any tax.
As a matter of fact, since the traditional resorts already attract by their paid advertising, all their customers (I have yet in 60 years of business seen the Township send me a booking request!!) it seems very unlikely that the Townships, probably feeble efforts at advertising will make any noticeable difference to my occupancy.
Second, historically I do not even know who is the “hired economic developer” that the Township has. They have never contacted me directly to get any feel for what my business might benefit from. I don’t even know their name. I hope they do better with the MAT tax funds.
Third, I’d like to see a bit of a list that demonstrates a bit more specifically “how much we can innovate in terms of tourism and how it will help”. I could point out that so far, again in 60 years, the Township, or District for that matter has done precious little to nothing to help MY BUSINESS. I can provide a list of examples but that would be long and boring.
Fourth, we already have groups like Muskoka Tourism, RTO 12 and Resorts of Ontario as well as Provincial and Federal tourism departments all trying to promote tourism. (there are more groups too). I find it hard to believe that efforts carried on by a new bureaucracy, totally lacking in experience and operating at the municipal level, working with funds gained by an unfair application of an arbitrary tax will in any way make any positive difference to my business. History has shown such dreams to be just that, dreams, not reality.
Last for today, I have several ideas that would cost virtually nothing except require the coordination of several levels of government that would indeed boost our potential tourism income in Ontario by about 10 to 15%. I have been telling various government and industry tourism authorities these ideas for 30 years but might as well have saved my breath. If anyone is interested contact me and I’ll expand on this for you for free!
Bottom line is that, like Yoda in Star Wars says, “I trust them not” to actually do anything much useful with this tax money. The powers that be need to do some serious convincing for me to change my mind on this and so far none of them has done this.