The Canadian Taxpayers Federation wants the provincial government to reject proposals from municipalities who want to impose a hotel tax.

Prairie Director Gage Haubrich explains that right now through provincial legislation, municipalities aren’t allowed to do that, unless changes are made.

Until recently, the province had a survey on its website about whether residents are in favour of changes so municipalities could include an accommodation tax.

The provincial survey noted that some municipalities are looking for additional sources of funding to promote tourism, invest in larger tourism infrastructure projects, host festivals or organize special events without using property tax revenues.

Saskatoon’s downtown arena and convention centre would be one of those projects where the idea of a hotel tax has been mentioned. Haubrich says, “It doesn’t make sense for someone who is going to come to your city and spend money and help grow the economy, to make them pay more for a hotel room.”

He suggests cities like Regina and Saskatoon have already been raising taxes while also wasting money.

Haubrich points to the City of Saskatoon spending $300,000 to brand its new Bus Rapid Transit system and the City of Regina’s $30,000 failed rebrand called “Experience Regina’ which had slogans deemed inappropriate, such as ‘the city that rhymes with fun’, and ‘show us your Regina’.