‘This can’t be it’
Tourism industry aid slammed as minuscule effort
Ottawa earmarked millions of dollars to promote holiday travel inside Canada to help the tourism industry weather the COVID-19 pandemic.
The funds announced Sunday by Economic Development Minister Melanie Joly included $30 million originally earmarked for attracting foreign visitors through the federal tourism marketing agency, Destination Canada.
The money will instead be used to help provinces and territories encourage Canadians to discover their “own backyard” as the country’s international borders remain largely closed due to COVID19.
The government also set aside about $40 million so tourism agencies in southern and northern Ontario as well as western Canada can adapt their operations to the pandemic, particularly as the normally busy summer approaches.
“A lot of people who have lost their jobs are in the tourism sector right now and the entire idea right now is to save the summer, but to save the summer differently,” Joly said.
“There’s an entire movement across the country to shop locally. We see that people want to discover or support even more their local businesses . ... Well I would add to that a new movement: Visit local and rediscover your beautiful city and your region.”
Talks around supporting the Quebec and Atlantic Canada tourism industries are underway, she added.
While describing Sunday’s announcement as a “step in the right direction,” Tourism Industry Association of Canada president and CEO Charlotte Bell called for more talks about long-term action.
“The survival of this industry, which pre-COVID contributed more than $100 billion to the Canadian economy and supported 1.8 million jobs, depends on a co-ordinated plan for recovery and reopening that includes input from the tourism industry,” she said.
NDP tourism critic Gord
Johns, meanwhile, criticized the fund announcement as inadequate.
“This can’t be it,” he said. “Considering the sacrifices the industry has made, an announcement that includes redirecting previously announced funding initially intended for foreign investment — while welcome — is the least the government could have done.”
The tourism industry, which employs about one in 11 Canadians, has been hit hard by the pandemic as international travel bans and border restrictions have choked off the flow of visitors.
A report by Destination Canada in April suggested the sector could see total tourism spending decline by about a third from 2019 levels and result in the loss of about 263,000 jobs, many of them associated with small and medium-sized companies.
Joly pointed to the federal government’s wage subsidy, rent assistance and other emergency measures as having helped the tourism sector, but said additional efforts are needed.