‘The Town Will Fail if This Carries On’

Indigenous business owner Brian Quick points to a “For Sale” sign across the street from his barbershop on Tofino’s Campbell Street.

The 12,389-square-foot property with a mix of commercial space below and residential units above is listed at roughly $2.4 million.

Quick sighs.

“That’s the kind of property only people with generational wealth can afford. It’s hard busting into their world,” he said.

He wants to see more Nuu-chah-nulth people own businesses in town, but as Ahousaht Tyee Ha'wilth Maquinna (Lewis George) says, “everybody has missed the boat now on purchasing property in Tofino.”

Maquinna is one of the only Nuu-chah-nulth members in Tofino who owns a short-term rental. In 1994 he opened the House of Himwitsa Lodge, Native Art Gallery and Fish Store with his wife Cathy. They live on the same property as their short-term suites.

“We got a good deal on the property,” said Maquinna, who bought the building from the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council.

“We wouldn’t have been able to do it without them. They sold it to us at cost,” he said.

House of Himwitsa was listed for sale five months ago for a cool $9.9 million, according to Maquinna. Almost 73, he’s ready to retire with his wife and travel. He wants to take her to the mountains and go skiing — or practise doing nothing.

“Lock, stock and barrel,” he said of the sale of his mixed-used property overlooking Tofino Inlet. “There is a possibility the hereditary could buy the building, but that all depends on the protocol with Cermaq. It would be nice to see a First Nations company take ownership.”

Fish farm company Cermaq Canada operates fish farms in Clayoquot Sound and Ahousaht First Nation traditional territory. In the spring of 2022 they signed a five-year, multimillion-dollar protocol agreement with the Ahousaht Ha’wiih (Hereditary Chiefs), as represented by the Maaqutusiis Hahoulthee Stewardship Society.

Mayor Dan Law bought his Tofino home 24 years ago. He does not operate a short-term rental and has rented his suite to a long-term tenant for the past 22 years.

“The median value home two years ago was listed at $1.6 million. The people or corporations that can afford those homes generally have to have considerable means to do so. There are just not that many people in Tofino with that kind of annual income,” said Law.

“In order to afford a mortgage on a $1.6-million home, you have to have an annual income of $350,000, plus 20 per cent cash down. It’s a very small number of locals who have that ability,” he continued.

Tofino, famed for its beautiful wild beaches, surfing and ocean-focused tourism, is located on an ecologically fragile part of B.C.’s west coast. In recent years, the town has struggled with a limited water supply that has forced the district to rein in new development. Meanwhile, the town has been hit by a wave of investment ownership that has squeezed the ability of locals to find affordable housing.

In May 2025, a new B.C. law came into force to limit short-term rentals to the owner’s principal residence, plus one secondary suite or “accessory dwelling” on the same property. The legislation is intended to be a basic “floor” of regulations, which municipalities can add to with their own bylaws. The act applies to all towns and cities that have over 10,000 people or are within 15 kilometres of an over-10,000 town, but smaller communities can choose whether to opt in or out of the legislation. Resort municipalities are exempt from the principal residence requirement.

Tofino, which is a resort municipality, attempted to opt in to the provincial act last spring.

In March 2024, the mayor and council tried to target people’s investment options on second or third homes by voting 5-2 in favour of opting in to the provincial legislation Bill 35, the Short-Term Rental Accommodations Act.

This original decision was supported by Tla-o-qui-aht Chief Councillor Elmer Frank.

“It is impossible for 90 per cent of Tofino households to own a home here. It is completely unsustainable. The town will fail if this carries on. The town will not be able to function,” said Law during a Feb. 25 regular council meeting where a motion to bring clarity on the principal residence requirement under Bill 35 was unanimously carried.

There are roughly 3,000 residents living in Tofino and the surrounding Tla-o-qui-aht communities of Ty-Histanis, Esowista and Opitsaht, according to Tourism Tofino.

A 2024 Tourism Tofino economic impact report shows Tofino had 300 accommodation providers, 1,890 rental units and 2,500 beds/sites. Tofino had 711,200 total visitors last year, with 632,400 of those being overnight guests.

Despite Law’s claim that the resort town has become unsustainable, many of these property owners seem to have an issue with changing the status quo. On March 11, Tofino mayor and council received a petition with 368 signatures asking council to opt out of the principal residence requirement of Bill 35. None of those signatures appeared to be from a Tla-o-qui-aht member. Council also received over 50 letters from Tofino residents urging council to “opt out.”

At a special council meeting on March 27, council voted 4-3 to carry a motion that would put Tofino back on the province’s exempt list.

That same day, district staff sent a formal request to the minister of housing to opt out of the principal residence requirement, which was acknowledged by the province but will not immediately take effect.

“Hosts in Tofino operating this summer will need to register with the province in compliance with the principal residence requirement. Pending Cabinet approval, after Nov. 1, 2025, this component of the registration process will no longer apply to short-term rental hosts in Tofino, though they will still be required to register with the provincial Short-Term Rental Registry,” states an April 30, 2025, letter from Ravi Kahlon, then-minister of housing and municipal affairs.

The District of Tofino reiterated that the earliest possible effective date for an approved exemption is Nov. 1, 2025.

“Unless and until an exemption is formally approved, local hosts must comply with the provincial Principal Residence Requirement and register with the Short-Term Rental Registry,” states the district in an email.

Over the past few years, Law said, there’s been a change when it comes to property ownership and short-term rentals.

“Historically, short-term rentals were seen as a way that local families who owned the home and were mostly living in Tofino could participate in the growing tourism economy,” Law said.

But with the proliferation of the Airbnb and VRBO platforms that made it easier to rent out houses and suites as tourist accommodation, Law said, investors started to buy homes in the area.

“What has happened, because these homes now are able to be run essentially as commercial accommodation, the median value of a home has gone up,” Law said.

Compared with other resort municipalities, Tofino also has looser rules around zoning, Law said. Tofino’s close neighbour Ucluelet has already adopted stricter rules around short-term rentals, although Law said enforcement has been a challenge.

“Other municipalities do not allow short-term rentals in residential zones like Tofino, and that's why our percentage of short-term rental homes is so astronomically high,” he said. “That’s also why it is hard now to rein it back in.”

Law said the impact on workers who want to live in Tofino has been dire, and employers struggle as well.

“We have a negative vacancy rate. We've got hundreds of illegal trailers, people living in unauthorized housing throughout the district,” he said. “And probably the No. 1 issue for businesses is employee housing. It's not a static trend — it’s more like a hockey stick trend.”

While the housing crunch has mostly affected lower-income workers, Law warned that soon health workers and other higher-paid professionals are also not going to be able to afford a house in the area.

In 2025, the District of Tofino issued 300 business licences for short-term rental accommodations. Of those 300 licences issued, 267 short-term rental or bed and breakfast owners are included in the province’s short-term rental designation.

According to district staff, short-term rental platforms and hosts were supposed to remove listings that do not have a valid provincial registration by June 2 and short-term rental platforms had to have cancelled all future bookings associated with unregistered listings by June 23.

District staff says these are “key compliance deadlines” confirmed by the province and “failure to do so may result in investigation or monetary penalties.”

When asked if Tofino’s Airbnb owners would comply with the province’s principal residence requirement this summer, Maquinna said, “That’s a hard one.”

“When there is big money around, people don’t seem to address the regulations. They’ll turn a blind to it and the council will turn a blind eye to a lot of it,” said the Ahousaht Hereditary Chief.

Both Maquinna and Mayor Law spoke about the increased water shortage Tofino has faced over the past few years.

Tofino’s water source is supplied by five creeks on Meares Island, part of unceded Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation territory. After suffering an unprecedented drought in 2023, District of Tofino staff created a Water Master Plan and Conservation Plan, which ultimately led to the creation of a Limits to Growth Policy that tackles the issues outlined in the Water Master Plan.

“We won’t be able to build anymore until we get a new water source,” said Mayor Law.

Maquinna and Cathy have removed all the hot tubs from their five suites.

“We were worried about it to begin with, but people aren’t coming just to sit in a hot tub. They are coming for the beauty... there are so many whales that have been going by,” said Maquinna.

[Editor’s note: This story, with new files from Jen St. Denis of The Tyee, is a version of one originally published by Ha-Shilth-Sa and was made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.]