Brew Donkey stops charging for brewery tours after legal threat

Ottawa-based Brew Donkey has stopped charging for itstours of craft breweries as a stop-gap measure after the provincial tourism regulatorthreatened legal action.

Company owner and operator BradCampeau has launched a crowdfunding campaign to make up for the financial loss while also seeking a small businessexemption to what he describes as an expensive regulatory measure.

• LISTEN |Brad Campeautalks about fight with tourism regulator

TheTravel Industry Council of Ontariosaid themain issue is that Brew Donkey does notown the buses it uses on its tours, meaning it must become a travel agency to comply with therules.

"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 ofTICO.

But Campeau said the cost to his small business, which charges between $85 and $100 for brewerybus 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 registeras 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," Campeausaid.

Crowdfunding campaign aims to raise 15K

Campeau said he is in discussions with hislawyers to "become compliant" with the Travel Industry Act but believes Brew Donkeyshould 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 anothertwo weeks to May 19 deadline, he said.

"We haven't been, in our opinion, given enough time to effectively deal with the issue thatTICOhas thrown at us," he said.

Campeausaid Brew Donkey has already given away about70 tickets at no charge. He hopes that the crowdfunding campaignwill raise $15,000 to keep the business afloat.

Hesaid it was important that the business continue to offer tours until it came to an agreement withTICO.

"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,"Campeausaid.

Brew Donkey has also launched a letter campaign, asking supporters to contact their MPP.