More Help For Hotel Industry As N.S. Premier Pushes For Maritime Bubble This Spring
HALIFAX — The provincial government will give more financial support to the beleaguered hotel and accommodation industry.
On Friday, the province pledged $7.3-million for the second round of property tax rebates for hotel, motel, and inn operators in Nova Scotia.
Operators who qualify for the financial help will be given a 50 percent rebate on payment of the first six months of their 2021-22 commercial property tax. That 50 percent rebate will be on top of a 25 percent rebate the province has already handed out.
According to the province, 252 operators applied for the first rebate, which cost the province about $6.7-million.
Premier Iain Rankin said the new rebate is intended to ease the financial pressure on hotel operators who have seen business disappear over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Over the first half of 2020, accommodation operators saw their room bookings drop by an average of 56 percent. Although those numbers have risen slightly, they’re still nowhere near pre-Covid-19 levels.
Property taxes are often a hotel’s biggest expense, and Rankin said operators will be able to use the money they get back from this rebate for whatever they’d like, including hiring staff, paying down debt, paying utilities, or ordering supplies.
The accommodation industry employs close to 50,000 people in Nova Scotia, which is about five percent of the province’s total population.
Megan Delaney, the general manager of the Cambridge Suites Hotel and the president of the Hotel Association of Nova Scotia, told Huddle in an email she was “pleased” with Friday’s announcement.
“It is vitally important for government to continue working with the tourism industry to ensure both short-term cash flow and long-term recovery concerns are understood,” she said.
In a news release announcing the rebate, Minister of Inclusive Growth Labi Kousoulis acknowledged the significant impact travel restrictions have had on hotel, motel, and inn operators.
“Travel and border restrictions, while important for our health and safety, have meant declines in visitors and ongoing cash flow challenges for our tourist accommodations operators,” he said.
It’s why accommodations operators have been paying close attention to Rankin’s recent statements about reopening the “Maritime Bubble.”
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The premier said he will talk to his Maritime counterparts next week about once again dropping quarantine requirements for people traveling between Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island.
Rankin said the Maritime Bubble will “probably” open before June.
“All premiers have talked about the need to try to open up commerce and activity throughout our provinces,” he said.
He noted that the Maritimes have done well controlling the virus and pointed to dropping Covid-19 case counts in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
“That gives us optimism that we’ll be able to [reopen the bubble] sometime in the spring,” he said. “The sooner the better for me, but obviously we’re going to take that cautions approach we’ve done throughout the whole pandemic.”