On Nov. 23, the Regional District of Bulkley Nechako (RDBN) discussed the introduction of Bill 35 which will restrict short-term rentals that aims to address and resolve the housing shortage issue in British Columbia.

Bill 35 and its forthcoming regulations will restrict short-term rentals to the host鈥檚 principal residence, plus one secondary suite or accessory dwelling unit on the same property.

According to B.C. Housing, short-term rentals refer to accommodations provided to the public in a host鈥檚 property in exchange for money, for less than 90 consecutive days.

In recent years, B.C. Housing had observed that Airbnb, VRBO, Expedia, and Flipkey had rapidly expanded in British Columbia and worldwide.

The bill will also affect short-term rentals offered on Facebook Marketplace, Kijiji, Craigslist, and through newspaper advertisements.

The government鈥檚 data shows that short-term rentals are taking thousands of affordable homes away from people in British Columbia by diverting them to the short-term market.

However, regional district electoral areas and municipalities with populations under 10,000 will be exempt from this bill.

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Director from Electoral Area E Francois/Ootsa Lake Rural of RDBN Clint Lambert said Bill 35 does not affect hotels and motels but affects Airbnbs referred to under short-term rentals. He said the province is now dictating what people can do with their property.

Lambert wondered how this bill would filter down municipalities and their rights for not following this order.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e trying to deal with a housing crisis that they created. I find it very frustrating that they can just come in and do whatever they want, tell people what they can do and not do with their own property and feel that this is acceptable.鈥�

鈥淭hey made it harder, more expensive and difficult to build a house with their zoning bylaws.鈥�

鈥淲e need to draw a line in this.鈥�

However, Director from Electoral Area B 亚洲天堂 Lake of the RDBN, Michael Riis-Christianson, said he appreciated some of the comments from Director Lambert but disagreed that the government caused this housing problem.

Riis-Christianson said that when it comes to housing, the private sector鈥檚 motive has always been to maximize profit, and therefore, the sector keeps the number of housing units to a minimum.

Mayor of Smithers Gladys Atrill said that in recent years, local governments have been lobbying the province for help in the housing sector because of the critical situation. She added that they may want to work with the province to modify the bill to suit their needs.

Atrill added that there is a need for short-term rentals in smaller municipalities as much as long-term housing since it could affect local tourism.

鈥淲e need some ability to work within our municipal boundaries to say that we鈥檙e going to have places for people to live, be they local physicians, dental assistants, temporary workers who are in for a year or two, and visitors.鈥�

鈥淚 think having some tools that we can work with, and if they鈥檙e not perfect, supply that information that feeds that back to the province, but on balance, I鈥檓 happy that there鈥檚 been some listening.鈥�

Director Stoney Stoltenberg from Electoral Area A Smithers/Telkwa Rural of RDBN had concerns that the government could change this population size any day.

鈥淭hey choose to do this in areas where the population is larger than 10,000 now; of course, they could change that any day to 5,000 people and all of a sudden blindness is affected.鈥�

Stoltenberg was also concerned about how much monthly rent people can charge if there is no short-term rental.

He said people who rent out their house on an Airbnb basis will not rent it out long-term for a lower amount.

鈥淭hey are not going to rent it to somebody for 750 bucks a month. They鈥檙e just not going to do it.鈥�

Chairperson of RDBN Mark Parker said he did not know whether charging rent to tenants is even regulated.

鈥淲hen the pipeline came into town, you could charge how much you wanted, isn鈥檛 that right.鈥�

Director Riis-Christianson agreed with Director Stoltenberg in addressing the need for affordable housing.

Riis-Christianson indicated that there are more than 16,000 homes in the province that are currently being used for short-term rentals. If that was taken out, he suspects that the market would take care of it, resulting in lower rents due to more availability.

Director Lambert added with respect to Director Riis-Christianson鈥檚 comment that handcuffing people and telling them what they can and can鈥檛 do with their rental properties will not solve the problem.

鈥淭his will not solve cheap, affordable housing because people who are already paying higher interest rates are handcuffed by not being able to rent out their house to get higher amounts,鈥� Lambert said.

Chairperson Parker said that this one time the government did the right thing by considering to listen to every municipalities and regional districts by saying 10,000 population or higher.

Chairperson Parker added this was at least a step further than not listening and blanketing the entire province into one shelf unit.

At the end of the discussion a motion was called for monitoring the impact on communities from Bill 35 and report back to the board for further recommendations.