Short-term rental fee hikes on the horizon in Tiny Township
By: Derek Howard, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Source: MidlandToday.ca, Oct 30, 2025
New and expired short-term rentals in Tiny Township will be getting a fee hike in 2026 to operate, while renewals will remain at their same rate.
The decision was made at the recent Tiny regular meeting of council, with the deciding rationale being that the program should remain cost-neutral as per the original intent.
Short-term rentals in Tiny had been a contentious issue throughout 2022 as the township attempted to implement regulations upon the rentals generating income, but which didn’t need to conform to bylaw or zoning matters.
A short-term rental bylaw was adopted at that time, capping applicants at 300 rentals within the township, with high fees to keep the program cost-neutral.
In the recent report to council, staff recommended maintaining the $1,750 fee for renewed applications submitted prior to Dec. 31 of any current year; however, new and expired applications would be subjected to a $250 increase to $2,000.
“This increase in fees, we hope, will create the program to be neutral as it was intended to be,” said Deputy CAO and corporate services director Haley Leblond, noting that work on the 2026 budget was underway by staff.
“With the fine revenue that we anticipate – there was a recent ruling – we do feel that in the very near future, we will see enough fine revenue to cover some of the deficit that the township has had to cover in the interim until this program was re-evaluated for an indefinite year.”
CAO Robert Lamb further explained that through challenges and appeals, the township borrowed from municipal reserves to cover legal costs; however, resolutions in the township’s favour meant those funds would be returned upon award of settlement along with additional fine revenue.
“On one file alone, it was $6,000 worth of fine revenue associated … to the municipality for operating without a licence, advertising without a licence, (and more),” Lamb explained.
He also noted the program was scaled according to the necessity for regulating the short-term rentals. While roughly 286 applications were made for the 2023 season, that number reduced to just over 150 last year, necessitating a reduction in staff as fewer complaints required fewer involvement.
Prompted by Coun. Steffen Walma to clarify a resident concern that $1 million in township funds had been used to fund the short-term rental program, Leblond definitively responded that such was not the case.
Coun. Kelly Helowka expressed concerns that “by increasing the new application fee, it may send more short-term rentals underground.”
Lamb responded the intent was to get new applications in before Jan. 1 as a compliance incentive; he added that previous kind gestures by the township for short-term rentals to receive conditional approval were met with non-compliance as the rental owner would use that approval and not follow through with remaining fire inspections and other regulatory requirements.
“We’re trying to help do whatever we can to mitigate that (non-compliance),” said Lamb, “so that we can get as many people that are looking at renewing to get renewed, and so that they don’t have to worry about taking down advertisements.”
As urgency to send out notification of the fee increase precipitated a decision at the late October council meeting for the short-term rental operator December 31 deadline, council approved the fee increase.
Following the council meeting, Lamb told MidlandToday that the township website held all information for any residents interested in starting up a short-term rental in the 2026 season.
“If somebody’s thinking about it for next year that’s brand new,” said Lamb. “Hopefully this would be an incentive for them to begin that process and get their application in early and pay their early fee, rather than waiting until next year and paying a larger fee amount.”
The 2025 fee schedule bylaw amendment for short-term rental application fees can be viewed on the agenda page on the Township of Tiny website.
Archives of council meetings are available to view on the township’s YouTube channel.