TOFINO TO BENEFIT FROM NEW REVENUE-SHARING AGREEMENT

TOFINO – Tofino will receive $3.5 million over the next five years through an agreement signed with the Province today under the B.C. Resort Municipality Initiative, allowing it to invest a portion of provincial hotel room tax revenue in local resort-oriented projects and programs, Community Services Minister Ida Chong announced.

“This latest agreement, the tenth to date with the Province, will provide funding for a multi-use trail and path system, upgrade public beach access points and help construct a civic centre and museum, built to Silver LEED requirements, featuring elements of Tofino’s First Nations and maritime history,” said Chong. “By investing in Tofino, and other resort-based areas in B.C., we are helping create vibrant, sustainable communities which in turn provide tourism, jobs and economic development opportunities for all British Columbians.”

Funds will also be used to help revitalize downtown Tofino, build a municipal campground, complete the Ahkmahksis water reservoir, add pedestrian and cycling pathways, create a mountain bike park and construct the Light House Trail to connect Tonquin Beach to Middle Beach and Mackenzie Beach. This unique trail will take users through old-growth forest and along the spectacular coastal headlands.

As a result of these investments over the next five years, Tofino expects to see a 25 per cent increase in shoulder and off-season hotel occupancy rates and a 20 per cent increase in local employment during the off season.

“This agreement will help us to not only draw in more tourists during our key summer months, but also attract visitors in the shoulder and off seasons,” said Tofino Mayor John Fraser. “This will help showcase Tofino’s natural beauty to tourists from all parts of the globe and gives us confidence that we can make a notable contribution to meeting the Premier’s goal of doubling tourism in this province.”

Under the program, an eligible community receives a share of the provincial hotel room tax, an amount based on a formula that takes into account the level of tourist accommodation in the community, relative to other B.C. communities. To be eligible, municipalities must have tourism-based economies or be designated as a “mountain resort municipality” under the Local Government Act.

Communities must be prepared to put in place an additional two per cent hotel room tax, prepare a resort development strategy that reflects the input of stakeholders and enter into a five-year results-based tourism development agreement that sets out what will be achieved through this tax transfer.

Ucluelet and Tofino are the latest communities to reach an agreement with the Province. To date, Whistler, Golden, Rossland, Harrison Hot Springs, Radium Hot Springs, Kimberley, Osoyoos, Revelstoke and Valemount have reached signed agreements; two other municipalities are currently eligible to enter into agreements: Fernie and Invermere. The B.C. Resort Municipality Initiative is part of the Province’s ongoing commitment to meeting the goal of doubling B.C. tourism by 2015.

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Media contact:	Marc Black Ministry of Community Services 250 387-4089

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