Sudbury looks at hiking hotel room tax to help pay for new arena

Greater Sudbury (file).

At their Oct. 22 meeting, city council in Greater Sudbury will vote on a motion from Mayor Paul Lefebvre to increase the municipal accommodation tax by two per cent.

The hike would mean people renting hotel and motel rooms – or any accommodation of 30 days or less -- would pay six per cent extra, beginning in January.

The extra revenue generated by the tax hike would go toward the debt repayment for the $200 million arena/events centre the city is planning to build downtown.

"As we support tourism, as we support more events that are happening in Greater Sudbury -- and certainly the event centre will be a big tourism draw -- that’s why we need these funds to be able to offset some of that cost," Lefebvre told Alana Everson of CTV News.

He said other communities have already increased the tax to help pay for projects and ease the burden on ratepayers.

"So it’s not on the general taxpayer of Sudbury, but it’s also on visitors coming to Sudbury," Lefebvre said.

"Right now it’s already at four per cent so we will be raising it to six per cent."

Half of the revenue from the MAT goes toward tourism initiatives, while the other half is available to a reserve fund to be used on whatever city councils in Ontario decide.