We've had an uneven playing field for some time now, at multiple levels of government, frankly. Here you have an industry that's emerged where they're basically selling the same product, but they're just doing it online. Who is competing with us are the operators who are buying up whole buildings and kicking people out of their homes, who are taking long-term housing supply off the market and who are using it to rent on a short-term basis. They can do that right across the street from a hotel, in a condo building where Airbnb owns all the units, or half of them, but they don't have to pay tax, the same health and safety standards don't apply and none of the rules governments have put in place to govern the accommodation space have applied to them up until this point.
We are delighted to see—and we've been working on this issue for a long time now—that effective July 1 there will be a levelling of the playing field for GST and HST application. This means Airbnb and other short-term rental platforms will have to charge and remit GST at the point of purchase. That will help to level the playing field.
I will also say that we are also seeing people booking cottages all over this country through Airbnb right now. You have no idea what their cleaning protocols are. They're not subject to the same standards as hotels are. Hotels, which have been playing by the rules all of this time and which are building hotels and contributing to communities, are sitting empty. I'll just leave that as an open comment.