Good afternoon. I'm the president and CEO of Croisières AML, Canada's largest cruise company. Since 65% of our 600,000 passengers come from outside Quebec, you can see that we're extremely affected by the current crisis. I'm also representing the Alliance de l'industrie touristique du Québec, a group of 14 regional and sectoral tourism associations. We represent 10,000 businesses and over 400,000 workers in the industry.
Mr. Chair, thank you for the opportunity to discuss our situation with you. I also want to acknowledge all the committee members and my other colleagues from Canadian tourism associations. Of course, I would have liked to speak with you under different circumstances. That said, I want to thank the Canadian government for actively listening to us. We're in constant contact with Ms. Joly and some other ministers, and we greatly appreciate it.
Tourism in Quebec is extremely important. It's the fifth largest export sector in Quebec. It generates nearly $16 billion in revenue, or 2.5% of our GDP. It involves 30,000 businesses and 402,000 workers. This amounts to one in ten workers in our province.
As you know very well, the tourism industry was the first industry affected by the pandemic. Unfortunately, it will be the last to recover. As a result, we'll need substantial government support for longer than Canada's other economic sectors. We acknowledge the government's efforts so far. These efforts have been made in a timely fashion and in response to our recommendations.
I want to draw your attention to two areas identified by the tourism industry as a whole. The first area is support for our workforce. We felt that this area was the most important. The social fabric of our society and our industry is primarily tied to our workforce. The workforce performs all the duties involved in welcoming tourists and ensuring that our industry runs properly. The Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy of 75% constitutes extremely well-targeted assistance that will really help our industry in these difficult times. However, the six weeks required to access this funding may be very long for some small businesses. We would have wanted this time frame reduced to help those businesses meet their cash flow needs.
It should also be noted that Quebec's tourism model is closely linked to the seasons. In Quebec, the peak tourist season is the summer. We would have preferred some flexibility in the definition of lost revenue for the period in question, from March to May. We would have wanted the definition to include revenue lost as a result of deposits for passes and the decrease in bookings. This would give most of our tourism businesses a much better chance of qualifying for financial assistance.
I now want to address our most important request concerning the workforce. It will take our businesses several months, even several years, to get back up to cruising speed, or in other words, to restore their client base and economic performance. Therefore, we want this 75% wage subsidy formula for our tourism industry implemented for at least 12 months, or when the loss of revenue is between 0% and 14% per month.
This aspect is critical to ensuring that we can hold on to our good workforce and keep our workers on the labour market. Businesses can then maintain their key human resource base so that they're able to handle the recovery.
I won't go into all the details, but we're asking for another very important measure. We want the government to better adapt the work-sharing program to the current seasonal nature of our tourism industry. The program should be extended to our seasonal employees and should provide the flexibility to create versatile work units with complementary skills. As a result, an employee could perform different duties in the business. We have different options to propose. We want the age requirement for businesses lowered from two years to one year so that, during this recovery process, younger and innovative businesses can access the program.
Once the situation of our employees has been resolved, another important point remains: support for tourism businesses' cash flow. Businesses depend heavily on cash flow to operate.
Since the impact of the pandemic will last a few years rather than a few months, we need fees waived, not deferred. We really need support from the federal government with respect to rental rates, fees for the use of government infrastructure, regulatory relief, the extension of certain permits, and so on. This measure will be very important.
We understand the principle of flattening the curve. However, like Austria, the Canadian government must be able to provide a projected recovery scenario and a timetable in reverse for lifting the measures implemented.
In particular, as you know, our industry depends largely on bringing people together. The number of people who gather together and social distancing will significantly affect the future of our industry. For example, the occupancy rate following the measures imposed—