The City of Winnipeg requires short-term rental owners to report all emergency services.

New rules could require owners of short-term rentals like Airbnbs and VRBOs to tell the city every time they receive an emergency call.

The city’s proposal calls for this change, as well as requiring occupant owners to provide additional proof of residency and co-owners/adult occupants of rental units to undergo a criminal background check.

The requirement to report first responder visits will help the city track rent payments for recurring concerns, said Winston Yee, the city’s manager of licensing and bylaw enforcement.

“This is so we can learn about the problems … and then see if there are additional measures we can take to address those problems,” Yee said during a meeting of the executive policy committee on Tuesday.

The EPC voted to defer a vote on the changes to a future meeting, expected to take place in December.

Mayor Scott Gillingham told reporters he supports the proposed changes, but more details are needed to ensure violations can result in meaningful consequences.

“I certainly want us to have more enforcement capabilities when it comes to identifying short-term rentals that may be problem properties… If it’s a property where police or fire are expected to show up, we want to know about those cases so that our enforcement team can be confident that they’re doing everything they can to hold the owner accountable,” Gillingham said.

“I certainly want us to have more enforcement power when it comes to identifying short-term rentals that may be problem properties.”

The city’s short-term rental licensing program went into effect in April 2024 after some residents called for tighter controls on the industry. There have been complaints about short-term apartment rentals near their homes, wild parties, noise, violence, vandalism and other criminal activity.

However, some owners said the facilities are an important part of the local economy and a few bad operators are damaging the industry’s reputation.

Gillingham said more could be done to address noise complaints and ensure property owners comply with the proposed requirement to report any emergency measures to the city.

“At this point, there doesn’t appear to be a viable way to get property owners to report that police were supposed to be on the property or firefighters were supposed to be on the property. We’re working out the details of how we can get that information,” he said.

Under the current proposal, operators would require tenants to “immediately” report any visits by first responders. In this case, the operator would be required to notify the city within five days, “and failure to do so may result in license suspension or revocation,” the city report states.

But a Winnipegger who lived for years in a downtown building with a lot of short-term rentals said he fears it will be too easy for landlords to claim they are unaware of emergency response measures since many of them don’t live in the units.

“You don’t know if you’ll be safe.”

Craig, who did not want his last name published, said he would prefer to see the city set a maximum limit on the number of short-term rentals that can be rented out of existing residential buildings.

“We need to protect… the overall impact on the area and the community… You never know what you’re going to get, you don’t know if you’re going to be safe,” he said.

Craig said he left the building late last year due to safety concerns related to constant partying, drug use, violence and gun threats. In one case, he said he chased away a man from his balcony who was also spying on his home with a drone.

He said the city should also tie violations of its rules to specific, measurable outcomes, such as suspending an owner’s short-term rental license after a certain number of noise complaints, parties or police incidents.

Melanie Mitchell, president of the Manitoba Short-Term Rental Owners Association, says there needs to be a plan to enforce the proposed new rules.

Melanie Mitchell, president of the Short-Term Rental Owners Association of Manitoba, said she’s not concerned about delaying the issue to ensure compliance with the rules.

“There has to be some kind of plan on how to implement them or how to enforce (the rules), otherwise there’s no point in it and it’s a huge waste of time. If you run your business correctly, you’ll never have to know about the fines or pay them,” Mitchell said.

She is unfazed by calls for more criminal background checks and proof of residency. The latter can be provided through tax and insurance documents, the report said.

“I think you can manage your property more carefully if you live nearby,” she said.

“If an ambulance comes for a guest… am I at risk of losing my license?

However, she said the requirement to report visits to emergency personnel could create privacy issues if visitors are reluctant to disclose medical issues.

“If an ambulance came and picked up my guest, took him away for a heart problem… and I didn’t know about it, am I at risk of losing my rights and my livelihood because I didn’t look at the camera 24 hours a day and see it?” – Mitchell said.

She said it might make sense for the city to require that all calls be reported to police.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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Joyann Pursaga
Reporter

Joyanne is a City Hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. A reporter since 2004, she began covering politics exclusively in 2012, writing about City Hall and the Manitoba Legislative Assembly for Winnipeg Sun before joining Free press at the beginning of 2020. Find out more about Joyanne.

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