I'm completely apolitical. I do this for a living.
Again, thank you, Mr. Chairman and all members of the committee. It's an honour and a privilege to be here with you today to talk about national protocol issues.
At the outset, I'd like to say that hotels have extensive knowledge and expertise on protocol procedures; there's no doubt about that. At the same time, we're leaders in providing service delivery to all folks, including VIPs and distinguished visitors. This isn't new to us. Frankly, we go back to Canada's founder and first governor, Samuel de Champlain, and the Order of Good Cheer. We're pretty good at what we do most of the time, I'd like to think.
Very quickly I will provide some background for you. I didn't want to miss the opportunity.
In 2010 tourism generated about $73.4 billion in total revenue, but 80% of that came from the domestic market and about 20% from exports. Tourism contributed about $20 billion in federal revenue. I always like to say whenever I appear before a committee that we're the good news folks. We actually bring in revenue for the government. We have about 600,000 jobs in Canada.
The lodging sector, which is what I specifically represent, did about $16.4 billion in revenue in 2010. We employ about 284,000 people. We paid out directly to the feds about $3.2 billion in taxes.
The total value of all of our assets across Canada is about $43 billion. Mr. Brown is one of the owners of part of those assets.
Let's get down to the question of what we're doing here.
Before giving you a summary of the protocol procedures that we have in hotels, I want to emphasize that it's always the guests whom we turn to for direction on their specific needs and requirements. That's our standard operating procedure. We find out from them what they need. Frankly, as long as it's legal and moral and falls within the agreed upon budget, we will typically deliver what it is they're looking for.
I will give you an idea of what some of the protocol items are that we have in hotels.
First and foremost, safety and security is our number one priority. It always has been and always will be.
We have protocols on the assignment of floors and rooms, including the rooms above, below, and beside a suite in question, depending upon who it is, where they're from and what their requirements are.
We have military requirements in hotels. Case in point: the Chief of the Defence Staff has to have a corner room that faces southeast to be able to have satellite hook-up.
I'm trying to give you a feeling for some of the concerns and interests we have.
We have protocols on exits and entries into hotels. Quite often you will find a situation whereby the individual in question doesn't want to go through the front door. We have protocols for that.
For security and scanning, we have protocols in place to take care of those issues. Fortunately, we live in Canada, but I'm sure most of you have travelled to places like Asia or Africa where you will see different types of protocols vis-à-vis whether you can drive up to the hotel or whether you have to park outside because you don't want to have any terrorist threats. We have those in place.
Moving on, there are orders of precedence, who takes precedence over whom. It's similar to that in the Government of Canada, if you're a member or a cabinet minister, whether you're PC, etc.
We have protocols in place for receiving lines as to who appears where. You folks have seen that.
With regard to interpretation, there are very strong protocols. We see those right in this room.
With regard to recognition of honoured guests—how does that work? There are protocols there.
There are protocols for signing ceremonies or for dealing with foreign dignitaries. We have protocols for flags, for which flag gets placed where and how, for which one is higher or lower, and for where they sit.
There are table designs and room layouts, similar to those for this room. There are protocols in place for those.
There are protocols for toasting.
There are protocols for cross-cultural fundamentals. How do you deal with various groups from around the world? What do we have there?
There are protocols for handling the press and media representatives. How do those work? What happens if somebody wants to go in and you say “No”? We've seen that before.
There are significant protocols regarding coordination with police forces and who does what, when, where, and how.
Two items that are always of paramount concern....[Technical Difficulty—Editor] We have to adhere to that. It's always front and centre. When it was introduced about 10 years ago, I remember it was a major item for hotels: what you could ask for, what you couldn't ask for, what you could get. Then we have the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which obviously is a piece of legislation that prevails.
Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, I would be delighted to take any questions you have and to see how we can help. I understand the process, and I understand you're trying to move forward to establish new protocols. From the hotel side, we'd be delighted to be of assistance, in whatever way we can, and later, when questions come up, we'd be delighted to be of service.
That's my presentation.