Maclean's

Last year, an Airbnb in Montreal went down in flames. Now, a crackdown has begun. ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

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The Best of Maclean's - From the Editor's Desk

Airbnb under fire

I rarely stay in hotels anymore. Instead, over the last decade or so, I have become an enthusiastic Airbnb user. I’ve stayed happily in Airbnbs in Ontario cottage country, Montreal, D.C., and once on an island in the Caribbean so remote that the streets didn’t have names or numbers. But lately Airbnbs feel like a guilty pleasure. The short-term rental industry sucks up precious housing stock, reducing options for locals who need places to live, right in the middle of a massive housing crisis.

Some jurisdictions are trying to solve that problem with new regulations. Last September, New York City came down hard on Airbnb, vastly restricting the types of apartments landlords can rent out. I travel to New York every July for a long weekend and have stayed in a variety of charming Brooklyn Airbnbs. Not anymore. They’re mostly gone. That’s good news for apartment hunters in NYC, crummy for budget-conscious tourists like me.

New York set a precedent. Now other cities in North America are considering similar legislation and strengthening existing regulations. In the current issue of Maclean’s, Caitlin Walsh Miller surveys the current state of the short-term rental market, the new wave of regulations, and one particularly messy case in Montreal, where a fire in a building filled with unlicensed Airbnb units led to the deaths of seven people.

—Sarah Fulford, editor-in-chief

Firefighters battling a fire at an apartment building

Editor’s Picks

SOCIETY

How the new international student rules will shake Canada’s colleges

In January, the federal government announced that it would only grant 360,000 new study permits to international students in 2024—a 35 per cent reduction from 2023. Now, public colleges, which rely heavily on international student fees to cover their costs, are concerned about their financial viability. We talked to Maureen Adamson, president of Fleming College in Peterborough, Ontario, who says her school could soon experience up to a 50 per cent drop in international student enrolment. In this Q&A, she explains why this might just be the nudge Canada needs to completely transform the way it handles higher education.

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SOCIETY

I own a daycare, and the government’s $10-a-day plan is threatening my business

Sarah Hunter has been working in daycares in Calgary since she was 18 and now owns and operates her own daycare, the Imagination Tree. But when the government’s $10-a-day daycare promise came into play, provincial funding holdups meant that she had to float nearly $100,000 of debt each month. In this essay for Maclean’s, she describes what needs to change to make affordable childcare sustainable—and why everyone, not just daycare operators, should care.

An image of two people sitting at a table