City council will vote Tuesday on what to do with half the revenue from the hotel tax.
As per provincial rules, half of the money will be going to Tourism London, but at Monday’s strategic priorities and policy committee meeting, city politicians recommended that council create a tourism infrastructure reserve fund with the other half.
The committee voted 8-5 in favour of the reserve.
“The entire industry is telling us ‘This is what we need to be better’ and I think that’s a really important message,” said Mayor Matt Brown. “This is already affecting our tax levy today. We are taxing Londoners to fund these programs and these infrastructure builds.”
Coun. Stephen Turner voted against creating the fund and advised caution.
“If we’re looking towards generating a new tax of some sort, I think it’s really important for us to have a sense of what the direct allocations are and what the anticipated budget to put that money towards would be,” said Turner
The tax is expected to bring in between $2 million and $4 million a year.
Brown believes this is an opportunity to improve the city.
“This is a moment in time that I think is really important for London. It’s going to allow us to continue to be competitive and in many ways be more successful than we have been in the past,” said Brown.
The committee also voted to recommend adopting a 4 per cent hotel tax as of October 2018.
— With files from Jake Jeffrey, Devon Peacock and Jaclyn Carbone