President's Message
by Tim Rogers

It’s hard to believe that 6 months have already passed since assuming my position as BCYHA President. As the saying goes, time flies. Needless to say, 2006 continues to be exciting and busy for our association.
At long last, I’m pleased to report that over the course of 2 different governments, we have scored a victory on the provincial government room rate issue. Very recently, the province announced its shift to a market-based pricing approach for provincial government room rates - a model similar to that employed by the government of Canada. 
Hotels are invited to submit their respective rates for 3 seasons: winter, summer, and shoulder. As such, rates submitted will be considered on a community-by-community basis. It is also interesting to note that the previous approach of considering rates by region (Vancouver, Victoria, Whistler and the rest of the province) no longer applies. For more information and key government contacts and web links, visit us at www.bcyha.com.
While it has taken years to get any action on the government rate issue, it is a win for hoteliers across the province. We can now focus our efforts on the “big” win: the elimination of PST on in-room consumables. 
As an association, we will continue to lobby for the elimination of PST on in-room consumables. In fact, we have already met with the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Small Business and Revenue and the Minister of Tourism, Sport and the Arts in order to progress the issue. As well, BCYHA members have been very active in making presentations in a variety of venues, including the pre-budget consultation process, the “Small Business Roundtable”, and the “Provincial Sales Tax Review” process. 
In theory, the elimination of the PST on in-room consumables is revenue-neutral for the government. Hoteliers would re-invest the savings back into their properties, thereby commanding a higher ADR, which would in turn result in an increase in bottom-line PST revenue for government coffers. This revenue-neutral concept is a perfect match with the government’s goal of addressing taxpayer fairness. 
Our goal is to have the PST issue resolved in the 2007 provincial budget. In the meantime, it will be essential to our success that you, our members, continue to engage your local MLAs and increase awareness of the unfair hardship placed on our industry by this specific tax.