Thank you for the question.
As you well know, this is an important area of the Canadian economy in the west, in the interior of British Columbia, and elsewhere in the country. We certainly have had a lot of input from tour operators and others in the tourism business in Canada.
The old rebate program was ineffective. It did not represent good value for money. It had a very low take-up rate but was costly to administer.
We recognize the contribution that tourist dollars make to the Canadian economy and the importance of promoting Canada as a destination of choice around the world in this tourism industry that is growing. We think the new program will be more effective than the old program at promoting tourism and will be a better use of taxpayer dollars. It will provide tax relief for foreign conventions, which are very important, and non-resident tour packages focusing on segments of the tourism market that are traditionally more competitive and price-sensitive. It will also provide a new accountability framework, which was lacking in the old program, to ensure that the government can better evaluate the effectiveness of the new program going forward.