Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for inviting me to appear before you today.
My name is Susie Grynol. I'm the president and CEO of the Hotel Association of Canada. I am also the founder and co-chair of the Coalition of Hardest Hit Businesses, which represents over 120 different business associations in the tourism, hotel and event sectors.
COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on Canada's travel and hospitality sectors. It has hurt our businesses more than 9/11, SARS and the Great Depression combined.
The accommodation sector itself saw a 71% decline in revenue from April to November of 2020. Hotels located in Canada's major urban cores have been the hardest hit of the hardest hit, with occupancy rates averaging less than 17% over the last nine months of 2020.
Our sector has now lost the better part of two years of business, and we are at a breaking point. Government support to this date has been our lifeline, and I want to thank every member of this committee and your colleagues for working together to keep our sector alive. It's why we have an industry still standing here today, but without Bill C-2's tourism and hospitality recovery program for the coming winter and spring, there will be significant business failures and sizable job losses. As the rest of the economy recovers, the tourism industry continues to deal with variants, changing restrictions and capacity limits. Tourism remains the hardest hit, and it is not expected to recover to 2019 levels until 2025.
Small family-run businesses make up 99% of the tourism sector in Canada. Many people assume that hotels are owned by the recognized international brand on that hotel, but the reverse is true. For the hotels in your riding—and you probably know which ones they are—it's people in your riding who generally own these hotels. These are small business operators who have now spent all of their livelihoods and reserves trying to keep these assets afloat. They have taken on as much debt as they possibly can, and now they are on the brink of survival.
Major festivals, concerts, indigenous tourism experiences and business events have been cancelled. Events planned for 2022 are being reconsidered. Even immediate travel plans to Canada for Christmas or to come and ski over the winter are being called off due to new variants. Put simply, we are at a standstill.
Perhaps the most heartbreaking fact of all is that tourism lost 880,000 workers in the first two months of the pandemic. Today, we employ 350,000 fewer people than we did before the pandemic. With our slow recovery—compared to the rest of the economy—most of these workers have now permanently left our sector.
According to our June survey of the Coalition of Hardest Hit Businesses, 60% said they will go out of business without an extension of government relief programs through the winter of 2022. Simply put, if Bill C-2 doesn't pass, we could lose the infrastructure that supports our events businesses in Canada, the unique local attractions that enhance our visitor experience and the hotels and event spaces that anchor the travel sector.
We are grateful that all parties offered support to our sector during the election campaign. Every party committed support to our sector. Bill C-2 accomplishes the key goal of providing support to only the hardest hit of the hardest-hit businesses in order to keep them alive. This is an investment in a sector that will come back with a vengeance if given the opportunity. It will also help keep people in the workforce who otherwise would be laid off, many of whom are Canada's most vulnerable—women, young people and immigrants.
We are recommending the swift passage of this bill today, without amendments. Tourism and accommodation businesses must have immediate access to liquidity to get through the winter. Passing Bill C-2 in its current form will save thousands of businesses and jobs.
Travel will resume with a vengeance. Of this, we are certain. With the passage of this bill, we will have an industry still standing on the other side of this pandemic, and we cannot wait to welcome the world back to Canada.
I urge all members of this committee to vote in favour of this bill and pass it without delay. Our survival depends on it.
Thank you.