Brew Donkey stops charging for brewery tours after legal threat
CBC News | Posted: May 20, 2015 6:42 PM | Last Updated: May 20, 2015
Provincial travel regulator says small company must register because it doesn't own buses
Ottawa-based Brew Donkey has stopped charging for its tours of craft breweries as a stop-gap measure after the provincial tourism regulator threatened legal action.
Company owner and operator Brad Campeau has launched a crowdfunding campaign to make up for the financial loss while also seeking a small business exemption to what he describes as an expensive regulatory measure.
The Travel Industry Council of Ontario said the main issue is that Brew Donkey does not own the buses it uses on its tours, meaning it must become a travel agency to comply with the rules.
"This company rents or charters buses, packages together tours, offers group bookings in advance, collects monies from customers and those are the very things that we're trying to protect for consumers in the province," said Richard Smart of TICO.
But Campeau said the cost to his small business, which charges between $85 and $100 for brewery bus tours, is too high.
"In our mind, becoming a travel agency is a process that would take a huge amount of our financial resources, as well as occupy a lot of our time," he said.
A company must have nearly $20,000 to register as a travel agent under the Travel Industry Act, including a $3,000 registration fee, a $10,000 security deposit and proof of a minimum of $5,000 in working capital.
"Between now and the time I buy buses, needing to be a travel agency solely for the reason that I don't own my own transportation doesn't seem to jive what their exemption is there for, which is to promote local tourism," Campeau said.
Crowdfunding campaign aims to raise 15K
Campeau said he is in discussions with his lawyers to "become compliant" with the Travel Industry Act but believes Brew Donkey should fall under an exemption that would only require a "few small clerical changes" because it is a small business.
The company was initially given two weeks to comply, then the date was extended for another two weeks to May 19 deadline, he said.
"We haven't been, in our opinion, given enough time to effectively deal with the issue that TICO has thrown at us," he said.
Campeau said Brew Donkey has already given away about 70 tickets at no charge. He hopes that the crowdfunding campaign will raise $15,000 to keep the business afloat.
He said it was important that the business continue to offer tours until it came to an agreement with TICO.
"We don't want to have people coming to our site expecting to find tours that we promised to offer every weekend and find nothing," Campeau said.
Brew Donkey has also launched a letter campaign, asking supporters to contact their MPP.