Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee. I’m pleased to be here.
Despite some businesses reopening during the summer season and talk of recovery, Canada’s tourism sector has remained stagnant since the onset of the pandemic. This sector was the first hit, the hardest hit and will be the last to recover. As other sectors and businesses see restrictions ease and revenues return, regulations that have handcuffed the tourism sector remain in place.
To give you a snapshot of the devastating impact on this sector, our latest survey in mid-July—normally our “high season”— revealed that 82% of all respondents experienced revenue declines between 61% and 100% in the last month compared with the previous year. Sixty-eight per cent of all respondents said that, without access to government-supported financing, they’ll be unable to stay in business. This survey includes all sectors of the visitor economy.
Let me be clear: Health and safety is paramount to this sector. It’s a key imperative for our industry to help rebuild consumer confidence and restore businesses, big and small. This industry has complied with all public health regulations, with many going above and beyond by implementing rigorous safety measures to ensure the health and safety of employees and guests. This includes hotels, air services, conference centres, tourism operators and others. This at a time when critical government support programs are nearing an end and our sector continues to be denied access to government-backed liquidity.
The visitor economy is unlike other sectors. We can’t provide curbside products or services, nor can we sell experiences online to keep the lights on.
Today I'm going to focus on a couple of the priorities.
First is sustaining tourism businesses. We know a vaccine will eventually come. Until then, we need dedicated, ongoing government support to bridge us into recovery. We can achieve this in a few ways, first, by extending the Canada emergency wage subsidy to next summer and applying the safe harbour provision to ensure the hardest-hit tourism businesses will continue to receive the 75% subsidy past the summer.