Thorne-Rochon's Crusade Against AirBnBs

Mayor advocated to stop her neighbours from renting their homes long before becoming head of council.

There is a major push among some councillors to severely restrict short-term rentals in West Nipissing.

As I reported last month, the municipality is considering a new bylaw that would make operating an AirBnB next to impossible for the average homeowner. At Tuesday’s meeting, council is set to move to the next phase of adopting this drastic new policy.

Many have been left wondering why our council wants to push such a forceful policy. Impeding on residents’ ability to earn extra income on the side while promoting much needed tourism in our town. Why are they seeking to create an unnecessary bylaw that would add to an apparent understaffed enforcement team and municipal administration?*

After covering this story I was made aware of who may be the underlying voice on this issue.

It appears that the push to regulate AirBnBs is being led by Mayor Kathleen Thorne-Rochon. But the push began long before she became mayor.

Nearly a year before running in the 2022 elections, Thorne-Rochon presented a scathing 4-page critic to the West Nipissing Planning Advisory Board. She was vehemently opposed to allowing short term rentals to operate in this town and was asking the municipality to address the problem.

STA (Short-Term Accomodations) are detrimental to the character of neighborhoods… - Kathleen Thorne-Rochon in December 13th, 2021

Her entire 4-page presentation at the December 13th, 2021 meeting can be found here.

Mayor Thorne-Rochon has publicly shared that she lives on one of the many lakes in our city. West Nipissing’s waterfronts are some of the most popular locations for rentals listed on AirBnb.ca and this is likely a prime motivation for our mayor’s insistence that we all but outlaw short term accommodations.

Short-term rentals were not discussed whatsoever during the 2022 campaign. A search of news coverage over the last five years reveals no stories of this ever being an issue in this town other than in the mayor’s 2021 complaint. So the sudden desire to regulate this industry does seem suspiciously led by some key influencers.

At the public meetings held this fall where residents could voice their opinions on the matter, Thorne-Rochon stated that neighbour-generated complaints were a big factor in prompting the need for a bylaw. “There were also some concerns about septic systems on the use of these buildings, but those were also neighbour-complaint generated. It was complaints along the range of things, from neighbourhood compatibility as well as occupancy limits” said the mayor.

But we have not yet seen any report of all these documented complaints prior to 2023 that prompted the proposal of this new bylaw. I reviewed all the planning advisory committee minutes over the last few years and could not find any other resident complaint other than Thorne-Rochon’s lengthy one in 2021.

Coincidentally, the issues that Thorne-Rochon brought up in October are the very same complaints she made two years ago.

She stated back then that “Secondary residential units on waterfront property are ripe for potential abuse..” and that “they pose a potential threat related to water and sewage…”

In 2021 Thorne-Rochon even pointed out to city council that AirBnB operators take advantage of “unfair tax policies” by not claiming some of their income. Her comments on revenue taxation which is not a municipal issue has worried some operators who question what the city may do with the database of operators they are looking to create. Requiring people to register their AirBnBs will help the city police and severely restrict the operation but it also allows them to create added federal headaches if they intend to share this information with Revenue Canada.

Conflict of Interest

West Nipissing has a strict conflict of interest policy that states that councillors and the Mayor must “always place the interests of the taxpayers and the Municipality first and, in particular, place those interests before their personal interests”.

The code specifies that councillors must refuse to participate in the discussion and not vote where a conflict of interest exists…

The Mayor’s 2021 letter and obvious personal attachment to this issue presents a clear conflict. We will have to wait and see if she recuses herself this week when council meets to discuss the adoption of the new rules. Regardless of her decisions, she may have already violated this code if it is revealed that she is the one who proposed the drafting of this policy earlier this year based on her own personal grievances.

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