Thank you.
We are barely surviving, and what we are surviving on is probably similar to many other tourism entities. We're essentially living on money we have borrowed from our clientele. We were quick to retain our deposits that we had collected at the end of 2019, doubting that this would be a quick recovery. At some risk, we took a lot of hard hits on social media. We actually had some lawsuits coming our way, because people demanded their money back when the borders were closed and it was obvious they would not be coming on our trips in 2020. We essentially are living on that money.
We have a small pool of cash reserves remaining in the bank. It's not our money; it's money that we owe to our clients. We owe them the trip that they have reserved, that they will now hopefully be taking in 2022. I shudder to say that word.
That's what's happened. We are living on those funds. When they run out, and they are running out and will run out shortly, we will be out of money. We will still owe our clients that money. We will owe them that trip. That's what's going on.
Unfortunately, what's going to happen is that if we do run out of money, if we do fold, as many businesses will, Canada and the rest of us will all get a very big black eye in tourism in general, worldwide. It's a huge trust issue that's at stake right now.
If global clients perceive Canada as a place where they left their money to be frittered away, so to speak, or lost, they will be very hesitant to commit funds to new trips to Canada in the future. That's what's going to happen. We're going to get severely hammered on social media if our businesses start to fold and we are unable to provide those trips that people have sunk their earnings into.
That's what we're up against. We need to figure out a way to prevent that from happening, because Canada cannot afford to lose that edge.