POLICIES & PROFILE

Click here for OAA's Submission to the Ontario Tourism Competitiveness Study.

GOVERNMENT ACTION:

POSITION STATEMENTS: Ontario Accommodation Association

Room Levy On Accommodation

• The OAA supports the policy position of the Tourism Federation of Ontario: "If any funds are collected as a Destination Marketing Fee, Hotel Levy, or any similar undertaking, then those funds must be solely dedicated to Tourism Marketing."

• The OAA strongly objects to the notion that municipalities gain the right to institute a tax on hotel rooms, with the funds raised going to municipalities coffers, to be spent as they see fit.

Level Playing Field For All Accommodation Operators

• All accommodation businesses renting to the travelling public should be taxed and regulated and inspected the same, including the collection and remission of the 5% PST on rooms.

• The travelling public has a right to expect the same safety and security and cleanliness, no matter the size or type of accommodation property. This includes fire safety and health and building code inspections.

Fair Property Taxation

• A new methodology of property tax assessment for motels and hotels is needed. The current assessment methodology is unfair, because it utilizes the income approach. It makes property tax similar to income tax, meaning that a well-run business pays higher taxes just because it has higher income. This unfairly penalizes successful operators. It is also a major paperwork headache, since owners must submit detailed financial statements every year.

• The income approach must be replaced with a fairer, more realistic calculation, reflecting the realities of operating an accommodation business and suitable for all property sizes.

Access To Capital

• The federal and provincial governments must pressure our financial institutions to provide greater access to equity and debt capital for the accommodation industry, for remortgaging, renovations/expansions, and new construction.

• Current loan requirements for accommodation operators are very difficult to meet. Financial institutions also have a limited quota for tourism businesses. Once that quota is reached, no matter how viable the business, loan funds are not available, even for remortgaging long-standing customers that have never missed a payment.

• Easier access to capital for Tourism projects, as occurs in other countries, would greatly encourage the growth of Canada's tourism industry.

Small Waterworks Regulations


• Ontario innkeepers are committed to providing safe, clean drinking water to their guests. Innkeepers receive regular visits from public health inspectors.
• After over four years of continous government action efforts, OAA helped achieve realistic affordable small waterworks regulations in June 2005 (Ontario Regulation 252). We continue to monitor the trasferral of these regulations to Public Health Units, which will assume responsibility for small waterworks in Fall 2006.

Labour Legislation

• We supported the Ontario government's introduction of a new Employment Standards Act, containing revised and realistic regulations applicable to the needs of employees and employers in our tourism industry. (Success: New Act came into effect September 4, 2001.) However, since then, the Act has been modified under the McGuinty government.

Gasoline Prices And Road Conditions

• The Ontario and federal governments must reduce the taxes they place on automotive fuel, thereby lowering the price of fuel. This will encourage more car touring vacations, and alleviate a major complaint from American tourists reacting to how expensive our gasoline is, compared to theirs.

• The funds raised by federal and provincial taxes on automotive fuel must be almost entirely spent on road infrastructure improvements: the repair and upgrading of existing roads, and the construction of new roads. Of the $4 billion in fuel taxes/license fees collected by the Ontario government each year, only $1.5 billion is spent on roads and other activities of the Ministry of Transportation. The federal government collects almost the same in fuel taxes, and invests almost nothing on roads.

New Ontario Fire Code

• Accommodation operators are dedicated to providing a safe environment for their guests. Fire safety is an ongoing priority. Accommodation operators receive regular visits from fire safety inspection officials.

• New regulations being considered for accommodation properties under the Ontario Fire Code must be realistic and affordable for all types and sizes of properties. This is particularly true for small and medium-sized properties, including those in older buildings and "heritage" buildings.

• Operators facing a significant expenditure in order comply with new fire safety regulations, must have access to funds from the government in order to bring their properties into compliance. It is extremely difficult to access capital from financial institutions.

Canada Select Accommodation Rating Program

• Through its membership and active participation in the Accommodation Industry Alliance for Ontario (AIAO), the OAA is committed to the endorsement and promotion of the Canada Select Accommodation Rating Program (CSARP) in Ontario. Although participation in the program is voluntary, the OAA encourages its members to be inspected and rated under CSARP.

• THe OAA urges the Ontario Government to officially endorse CSARP as Ontario's preferred rating program.
• The OAA urges the National Board of Canada Select to address the pressing requirement for national consumer marketing for CSARP.

Tourism Marketing For Ontario

• The Ontario government must maintain current levels of funding for tourism marketing in Ontario. Ideally, those levels should increase, each year. It is a documented fact that for every dollar invested by government in tourism marketing, the government gets back $3 - 4 dollars in increased taxation revenue.

• Increased tourism marketing benefits the entire tourism industry, especially small and medium-sized operations that do not have the financial resources to participate in dollar-matching marketing programs.

• The OAA applauds the greatly-increased marketing efforts of the Ontario and federal governments, through the infusion of new marketing dollars, to help our industry recover from the severe downturns that occured in 2001 and 2003, from which our industry is still recovering.

Tourism Highway Signage

• The OAA supports the TODS and LOGO tourism signage programs. These programs enhance tourist and business travel in our province.

• Small accommodation businesses (60 units and under) should have the same right of being listed on TODS signage on 400-series highways, as do attractions and destination resorts. This is because small tourism businesses cannot afford the expensive annual fee under the LOGO signage program.

Disabled Access

• We support the new Accessibility for Ontarians With Disabilities Act, 2004, with its aim of increasing accessibility, opportunity, and independence of people with disabilities.

• Accommodating guests with disabilities is a growing market segment of Ontario's tourism industry. Independent tourism operators are willing to accommodate guests with disabilities.

• Compliance with the Accessbility for Ontarians With Disabilities Act will be challenging for many Ontario innkeepers. Government must make funds available so operators can finance the necessary retrofits to their property. This is especially important for small and medium-sized tourism businesses. Loans from financial institutions are hard to obtain for tourism operations.

Fair Exchange

• All members of the OAA have a commitment to offer fair exchange on U.S. currency. This is part of the OAA Code of Ethics.

• The Ontario and Canadian governments should regularly encourage all tourism operators to offer fair exchange on U.S. currency.

Last Updated: October, 2005.

Ontario Accommodation Association Profile

Who We Are:Founded in 1949, the Ontario Accommodation Association (OAA) is the incorporated non-profit trade association serving Ontario's independent accommodation industry. Although the majority of our members are motels, our members also include hotels, resorts, country inns, cottages, bed & breakfasts, and outfitter lodges. With over 1000 members province-wide, the OAA currently represents 70% of the motel industry. Ontario's largest association specializing in accommodation operators, the OAA has more properties in membership, by far, than any other. Most members are small to medium-sized independent businesses, often family-owned and operated. By choice, the OAA receives no government funding whatsoever, in order to freely represent our members' interests to government. The association offers 40 benefits and services to its members, including representing them to government. We also have members in these categories: Allied Members (suppliers to the industry), Educational Allied Members (colleges and universities), Retail Allied Members (gift shops), and Associate Members (retired operators).

Mission Statement: The Ontario Accommodation Association exists to add value to our members' growth, profitability, and competitive advantage.

What We Do: Our main purpose is to provide money-saving benefits and services to our members, thereby lowering their operating costs. Foremost among these are our new Global Payments VISA 1.70% and MasterCard 1.79% merchant credit card rates. Another key benefit is our Group Property / Casualty Insurance Program, the longest-running (24 years) and most stable program of its type. We offer savings on 0+ & credit card calls and long-distance through Canopco and Sprint Canada, and 25% discount to join Alliance Purchasing Services. Other services include a quarterly magazine (The ACCOMMODATOR) and five-times-yearly newsletter (NEWSLINE), Special Bulletins and E-mail Alerts, annual SAX trade show (the largest accommodation show in Ontario), annual Buyers' Guide, Traveller’s Companion membership directory distributed to tourists, unique Accommodation Operator’s Reference Book, and many others. We market our members on the Internet at no extra charge; the largest listing of Ontario accommodation on the Web.

Leadership: We were instrumental in founding the industry-wide Tourism Federation of Ontario in January 1996, and have administered it on a volunteer basis since then.