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Cottage Life

First test run for proposed train route between Toronto and cottage country

Photo Courtesy of Twitter/Ontario Ministry of Transportation

Ontario cottagers may soon have a new way to travel to and from the cottage.

Early Monday morning, Ontario Northland, a provincially-owned transport operator, sent a test train from North Bay to Toronto’s Union Station and back.

The test was used to gather information on the route, evaluating track conditions and verifying transit times between stops, the Ministry of Transportation said in an email.

As part of the test, the train travelled through Huntsville, Bracebridge, Gravenhurst, Washago, Gormley, and Langstaff, carrying 15 passengers and a small number of employees who operated equipment and collected data.

Notable passengers included Parry Sound-Muskoka MPP Norm Miller, Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli, Ontario Northland president Corina Moore, and several northern Ontario mayors from stops along the proposed route.

The entire route, which was first proposed in a May 2021 government report, would include 13-stops, and go as far north as Timmins.

Train passage between Toronto and northern Ontario isn’t a new concept, though. In fact, this same route was serviced by Ontario Northland until 2012 when the Dalton McGuinty government cancelled the service, claiming it was financially unprofitable.

In 2018, current Ontario Premier, Doug Ford, revisited the idea of northeastern rail service in his election campaign. When the provincial government released their 2021 budget last March, Ford pledged $5 million towards planning and designing a rail service that catered to northern communities.

“We made a commitment to return passenger rail to the North and we are one step closer to fulfilling that commitment,” Vic Fideli said in a May press release.

“Improved passenger rail would provide people across Parry Sound-Muskoka with another way to travel both north and south to access services and it would give visitors to our local tourism operators a comfortable way to travel to the area,” Norm Miller added.

Train service would run based on seasonal travel demands, ranging from four to seven days a week. An added benefit would be that passengers coming from the North could travel overnight to maximize their day in the Toronto area and reduce the need for overnight accommodations.

No date has been announced for when train service will open to the public, but according to the Ministry of Transportation, their goal is to use the data collected from the test run to update their current business case—a report that forecasts costs, revenue, and ridership figures—by 2022, making the train route available by the mid-2020s.

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Cottage Life

Hospitality industry welcomes new ‘staycation’ tax credit

Photo Courtesy of Deerhurst Resort

The U.S. border may be open but Premier Doug Ford is trying to keep Ontario vacationers close to home. In the 2021 Ontario Economic and Fiscal Review released last Thursday, the provincial government laid out a proposal for a “staycation tax credit” to help bolster a hard-hit tourism industry.

“Our government has a responsible and prudent plan that creates the conditions for an economic and fiscal recovery driven by growth,” said finance minister Peter Bethlenfalvy in a release.

The personal income tax credit—available during the 2022 tax year—would allow Ontarians to claim 20 per cent of the cost of vacation rental accommodations up to $1,000 for individuals or $2,000 for families. This means that individuals could get a maximum tax break of $200 and families $400.

The credit will apply to any vacation accommodation booked between January 1 and December 31, 2022, with Ontario residents able to apply for the credit in their 2022 tax return.

Eligible accommodations include hotels, motels, resorts, lodges, bed and breakfasts, cottages, and campgrounds in Ontario as long as the stay is less than a month in length and the reason for the booking is leisure rather than business.

The tax credit would cost the government $270 million and support an estimated one-and-a-half million families.

Ontario’s cottage country accommodations are optimistic about the initiative. “Anything that is supporting and incentivizing stays within Ontario would be welcome,” said Laura Kennedy, director of marketing for Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville.

“The timing of the incentive is good. As more travel destinations are starting to open up again, obviously there’s more competition with Ontario. So, I think it’s great to reward and incentivize Ontarians to stay in their province. And I think a lot of Ontarians have been discovering how many great travel destinations there are within their own backyard.”

While the pandemic did force Deerhurst to close its doors for three months in March 2020, demand over summer 2021 and into the fall has soared, Kennedy said. “There were actually times that we stopped taking bookings because of staff shortages.”

Heading into the holidays, Kennedy said that booking demand is pacing approximately 25 per cent ahead of where the resort would normally be.

Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath has criticized the Ford government for not going far enough. “Local tourism and hospitality businesses need and deserve more help to make it through the winter,” she said in a release.

In July 2020, NDP MPP Wayne Gates proposed an Ontario tourism tax refund of $1,000 per family. The Ford government initially walked away from the bill and have since reduced it to $400 per family.

Categories
Cottage Life

Hospitality industry welcomes new ‘staycation’ tax credit

Photo Courtesy of Deerhurst Resort

The U.S. border may be open but Premier Doug Ford is trying to keep Ontario vacationers close to home. In the 2021 Ontario Economic and Fiscal Review released last Thursday, the provincial government laid out a proposal for a “staycation tax credit” to help bolster a hard-hit tourism industry.

“Our government has a responsible and prudent plan that creates the conditions for an economic and fiscal recovery driven by growth,” said finance minister Peter Bethlenfalvy in a release.

The personal income tax credit—available during the 2022 tax year—would allow Ontarians to claim 20 per cent of the cost of vacation rental accommodations up to $1,000 for individuals or $2,000 for families. This means that individuals could get a maximum tax break of $200 and families $400.

The credit will apply to any vacation accommodation booked between January 1 and December 31, 2022, with Ontario residents able to apply for the credit in their 2022 tax return.

Eligible accommodations include hotels, motels, resorts, lodges, bed and breakfasts, cottages, and campgrounds in Ontario as long as the stay is less than a month in length and the reason for the booking is leisure rather than business.

The tax credit would cost the government $270 million and support an estimated one-and-a-half million families.

Ontario’s cottage country accommodations are optimistic about the initiative. “Anything that is supporting and incentivizing stays within Ontario would be welcome,” said Laura Kennedy, director of marketing for Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville.

“The timing of the incentive is good. As more travel destinations are starting to open up again, obviously there’s more competition with Ontario. So, I think it’s great to reward and incentivize Ontarians to stay in their province. And I think a lot of Ontarians have been discovering how many great travel destinations there are within their own backyard.”

While the pandemic did force Deerhurst to close its doors for three months in March 2020, demand over summer 2021 and into the fall has soared, Kennedy said. “There were actually times that we stopped taking bookings because of staff shortages.”

Heading into the holidays, Kennedy said that booking demand is pacing approximately 25 per cent ahead of where the resort would normally be.

Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath has criticized the Ford government for not going far enough. “Local tourism and hospitality businesses need and deserve more help to make it through the winter,” she said in a release.

In July 2020, NDP MPP Wayne Gates proposed an Ontario tourism tax refund of $1,000 per family. The Ford government initially walked away from the bill and have since reduced it to $400 per family.