West 琉璃神社 Councillor Garrett Millsap has raised concerns about ongoing non-compliance with the city鈥檚 short-term rental (STR) bylaws, especially when it comes to high-end vacation homes operating without licences.
鈥淲e鈥檙e seeing quite low fines,鈥� Millsap said at council鈥檚 July 22 meeting. 鈥淚鈥檓 just curious, are we still utilizing the third party for checking in on compliance in the bylaws?鈥�
City staff confirmed that the third-party compliance (bylaw) is still in use, but Millsap said he wants council to hear directly from those doing the enforcement.
鈥淚 know it鈥檚 been requested by Coun. (Tasha) Da Silva. At some point, council would like to see them come in and speak with us and learn about the process they鈥檙e using,鈥� he said.
Millsap said his concern stems in part from what he found while doing some of his own online searching, and asked if enforcement focused only on Airbnb and Vrbo rentals.
鈥淚 bring this up because last weekend I鈥檓 just sitting Googling, and we have a proliferation of luxury home rentals in the city."
He added that some of the homes are renting for thousands of dollars a week.
鈥淣o licence, no provincial licence. And I鈥檇 like to see us enforce on these places.鈥�
Millsap added that he wants to see stronger enforcement.
鈥淚 know our fines will be the cost of doing business, but I鈥檇 like to see our city generate some revenue off some of these people that are actually just blatantly breaking our bylaws,鈥� he said.
Chief Administrative Officer Ron Bowles suggested that a broader presentation could be prepared for council that outlines how bylaw enforcement works, including short-term rentals.
鈥淚t definitely will be our bylaw experts in both the building area and the general bylaw to have this discussion,鈥� he told council.
According to the city鈥檚 Q2 2025 Department Statistics Report, enforcement letters were sent to 11 short-term rental property owners: six received first notices, five received second notices, and five were subject to enforcement action. Seven fines totalling $2,300 remained outstanding as of July 22.
The city also received 26 new STR applications in Q2, including 15 for bed and breakfast operations. During the same period, 12 new licences were issued.
