You can fight city hall and win, or town hall at least. Backlash from the industry has prompted Drumheller town council to kill a tourism levy for hotels, motels and bed and breakfast inns within town limits.![]()
The levy, officially known as Schedule B of the town's Business License Bylaw, was to be added as a surcharge on room rates as a means of funding Travel Drumheller without taxpayers' dollars, but it hit opposition from the start.
"The demand for payment by the hotels has been removed," reported mayor Terry Yemen after the January 25 council meeting. "Travel Drumheller was here (and) they did say they have had some contact with some of the hotels and they are going to continue (funding) voluntarily."
"A lot of the other service providers for the tourism industry, during the discussion, did say that if this payment was not mandatory, they would gladly participate," he added.
The removal of Schedule B leaves Travel Drumheller having to go back to the town for operational funding, something that doesn't sit entirely well with the mayor.
"It's something that we hadn't looked at during our original budget deliberations because there was a funding source," he told 99.5 Drum FM. "It'll have to come back to council (and) that's $50,000 right out of the pockets of the people of Drumheller."
Travel Drumheller received $40,000 from the town in each of its first two years.