TINY TOWNSHIP HAS ME STUCK BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE 

I fell in love with Tiny when I began driving up here to go snorkeling. My love of the crystal-clear  water is what made me save enough money to get a down payment to buy my small cottage in  2005. The lot was overrun with weeds and the cottage itself was in bad shape. I worked very  hard on my own to bring the property back to life.  

Today, I am a full-time resident of Tiny – a place I’m proud to call home.

Life was great until 2019 when I was laid off unexpectedly. And for the next three years it has  become incredibly difficult to maintain a steady income. To make matters worse, life had more  surprises in store. I got into an accident injuring my hip and a shoulder – forcing me to miss work.  I really began to struggle financially. My mom’s health started to decline. I had to miss more work  to travel back and forth to Saskatchewan to help care for her; she recently passed away. My  dad, 84, is aging. In future, I expect to travel back and forth to Saskatchewan once his health  starts to decline, while trying to hold down a job. It feels like a never-ending cycle of hardship.  

WHY I STARTED TO SHORT TERM RENT 

Because I had to. With too much time off work to care for myself and my parents I wasn’t going  to be able to meet my mortgage payments and expenses.  

IMPACT OF THE STR BYLAW ON A SINGLE HOMEOWNER 

By renting out my property short-term, I figured out a way to keep my home and care for my  parents, while employment was precarious. With my mother gone and my father aging, I still  need to figure out how to care for him, care for myself, pay my mortgage and save for retirement  – there is no one else for me to rely on. Renting my only property for a few days at a time in my absence allows me to meet these survival needs. 

I do not have $1500 a year to pay for a license fee. I am not doing rentals  to bank a bunch of money. I do this to stay afloat.  

I am sorry that my desperation to stay afloat and keep myself with a roof over my head has  disgruntled other full-time residents (although I personally have never had a complaint from any  of my neighbours for any reason). Not being able to short-term rent would mean I need to sell  my home, displacing me. I do not want to sell my home. I shouldn’t have to sell my home and  lose my future because someone else in my neighbourhood doesn’t like how I need to live. No  resident of Tiny should be in the position that I am, groveling to the Town Council with my  personal hardships to highlight everything that is wrong with the STR bylaw.  

Why were people like me completely overlooked?  

As an active full-time resident who rents out my property short-term, why did I have no idea there  was a STR bylaw coming into effect until it was too late? Under no circumstance should people  like me ever be forced into signing up for a program like this. I truly hope the Town’s newly  elected officials do what they say they were going to do – amend this bylaw and do so quickly. I  can’t afford to obtain a licence and all that is required to get one. I can’t afford to not rent my  only property. The Council needs to take a second look at spending thousands of dollars to  police and create revenue from citizens like me – a responsible STR host, a full-time Tiny  Resident, a law-abiding citizen who is just trying to make ends meet.  

I want my elected officials to support me in our community not put regimes in  place designed to displace me that do not address problem STRs.