By AMY SMITH Provincial Reporter
A cabinet colleague has cleared Finance Minister Michael Baker of any wrongdoing in a cottage rental business he owns with three partners.
But a competitor still questions whether the government is protecting one of its own.
The Chronicle Herald first reported that the owners of the Island View Cottages near Lunenburg didn’t have a tourist accommodations licence and were paying taxes at a residential rate rather than a higher commercial rate.
Tourism Minister Len Goucher said his department also investigated the waterfront rental cottages and inspectors were told the cottages are rented on a monthly basis.
He said the Tourist Accommodations Act only deals with cottages that are rented on a daily or weekly basis.
"As far as the department and the (Tourist Accommodations Act), I believe that the issue has been resolved," Mr. Goucher told reporters after cabinet Thursday.
"If there’s anything more to add to it or if anything else comes up, we’ll take it one step at a time from then on."
Graham Johnston of Balmoral Farm Vacation near Tatamagouche, who launched an official complaint with the RCMP about Mr. Baker’s cottages, said he can’t find anything in the act or its regulations about an exemption for cottages rented monthly.
"I think it’s outrageous. It’s absolutely outrageous," Mr. Johnston said Thursday.
"This guy’s just been given a free pass by the government of Nova Scotia looking out for their own."
Mr. Johnston said he sometimes rents to vacationers for weeks at a time and his business still falls under the act. "There’s no sense to it," he said. "It’s not fair."
Tourism Department spokeswoman Vicki Fraser said the act does not explicitly say that monthly rental cottages don’t need a licence, but "this is the way that we’ve applied the act for the last 25 years." "The 1,400 that are licensed are daily and/or weekly rentals," she said. "We don’t have any monthly rentals licensed at all for the province and we’ve never done that."
She pointed to a page on the department’s website that says "anyone offering accommodations to the travelling or vacationing public on a daily or weekly basis, regardless of the number of rental units or camping sites, must have a licence to do so from the Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage." Ms. Fraser said the province doesn’t view those who stay 30 days or more as members of the vacationing or travelling public.
Mr. Baker was on vacation and could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Opposition Leader Darrell Dexter questioned why one government department would be asked to make a decision about a cabinet minister of government. "That’s a very uncomfortable position for a department to be in, unless it has a written policy that has been released and is part of the public domain," Mr. Dexter said. "The question for them is, ‘Do you have something in writing that sets out that this is the understanding, to show people that a minister of the Crown is not being treated differently than everybody else?’ "
Liberal Leader Stephen McNeil said the rules should be changed so all operators, whether they rent daily, weekly or monthly, are the same. "This doesn’t make sense," Mr. McNeil said. "This is absolutely crazy. Theoretically, if you rented your cabin to somebody for the weekend, you fall under this law, but if you rented it for someone for a month, you don’t." He said Nova Scotians need the minister to be clear on what the law actually says and what is doesn’t.
"This is about the integrity of government, frankly, and he needs to come out and make sure that Nova Scotians don’t feel there’s two sets of laws here, one for those who are in public office and those who aren’t."
Donna Chislett, spokeswoman for Service Nova Scotia, said because the Tourism Department has determined the Island View Cottages don’t need a tourist accommodations licence, they will continue to be taxed at a residential rate. "It has been classified residential and it will remain residential," she said.
The RCMP also investigated Island View Cottages and spokesman Cpl. Joe Taplin said their investigation into Mr. Baker’s cottages has wrapped up and no charges will be laid.
"The information that we received, members went through it and there was no criminal intent on Minister Baker’s part," Corp. Taplin said Thursday afternoon.
Earlier this month, Lunenburg RCMP received a complaint regarding the rental cottages owned by Mr. Baker, his brother Peter, and brothers William and Graham Gerhardt.
The commercial tax rate for cottages is $1.82 per $100 of assessment. The residential rate is 78 cents per $100 of assessment.