Industry Committee on Aug. 10th, 2020

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Thanks very much.

First, I want to say that I strongly support Mr. Patzer's motion. I did see online the other day that True North and Anthony Furey had roundly embarrassed themselves by suggesting that the government was tracking everyone everywhere they go. So it would be good to get something on the record from someone intelligent and thoughtful on this issue, including the Privacy Commissioner.

With that, I want to share my time with Mr. Longfield.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you.

I want to start with Ms. Grynol again, just to follow up on one or two things, and then I'll switch over to Ms. Bell.

Ms. Grynol, with regard to the ownership of hotels, you brought up a key point, which I'd like to make sure we have on the record, and that is that even the hotel chains.... The Delta Hotel in Guelph, as an example, is owned by a local partnership group. When we think of hotel chains, we think that there's a lot of money behind them and that somehow they're financed by some central corporation. Could you maybe put something on the record for us on ownership of the larger hotels in each community?

[Susie Grynol]

I will, with pleasure.

You are correct that there is a misconception about the hotel industry. When you see one of those brands, you assume that this big American chain owns that property and has access to all sorts of liquidity. The reverse is true. These are all Canadian-owned companies. The majority of them, 83%, are small. They would fit the government definition of small and medium-sized businesses.

This is a franchise model, so you would own a hotel and you would decide, “Do I go it alone and be an independent hotel, or do I get the brand behind me?”, which is essentially a marketing engine. So, yes, these are Canadian-owned small businesses in every riding in the country.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you.

Administration and some fixed costs are possibly covered by corporations, but they also support not-for-profits. They support baseball teams, and they contribute to our communities with Canadian dollars. I think it's important to highlight that.

[Susie Grynol]

They're critical infrastructure, yes.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you. Thanks again for staying at one, but I guess that's what you do.

Ms. Bell, thank you for all the work you do behind the scenes with the different organizations that you contribute to. I'm interested in how Canada stacks up in terms of our tourism policy, what other countries might be doing that we haven't considered—if you have any of that, either through TIAC work or other work that you've been doing—and how we need to coordinate Canadian policies with those of other countries, since a lot of travellers don't travel just to Canada but go to other countries as well.

We'll go over to Ms. Bell for that, please.

[Charlotte Bell]

Thank you for asking the question.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Anybody else can contribute. Thank you.

[Charlotte Bell]

Every country has its own policy, so we could spend hours talking about that. What we have seen since the pandemic is a great deal of international...countries putting measures in place—funding, grants and incentives—to encourage people to travel. In fact, we're filing a tax credit proposal to encourage Canadians to travel in Canada.

We could file something with you that goes through what the policies are across the board internationally. I'm happy to do that.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you. That would be helpful for our report.

Does anybody else have an international piece that they'd like to bring in the last minute that we have?

[Clark Grue]

I can speak very briefly.

The exhibition and convention space is very international. Everybody is looking at what everybody else is doing. Europe has opened up quite a bit more than we have for exhibitions and conferences, so they are out ahead of the protocols. Task forces across our country have been working as well to put in place safe protocols to reopen; there's a lot we can learn from that.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

If Canada can stay ahead of the curve and keep our country safe, we should be in a competitive position to attract Europe.

[Clark Grue]

Absolutely, 100%.

Thank you for that.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you.

Failing anything else, I see the red card coming up. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to all the witnesses for the great testimony. I really appreciate it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Lemire, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

In the tourism industry, promoters are obviously very important stakeholders. However, there are also the people who promote the tourism products in each region. Our regional tourism associations work hard to encourage co-operation rather than competition. This is very important to me. In Abitibi Témiscamingue, the tourism ecosystem is particularly significant. As my father would say, we must develop our emotional connection with our territory.

These regional tourism associations obviously need human resources to maintain the connection between different sectors, such as between outfitters and the Québec Outfitters Federation; between the Accès Plein Air project in our region and Aventure Écotourisme Québec; or between snowmobile clubs and the Tourism Industry Association of Canada. The same applies to hotels, culture and our elected officials, and even to indigenous tourism. Closely linked projects are essential to ensure the sustainability and promotion of the industry. All this requires the coordination of resources.

My question is for the Alliance de l'industrie touristique du Québec. In your opinion, given the needs, is it more necessary than ever to have new money, in other words, to increase the funding from Canada Economic Development to ensure that regional tourism associations obtain money?

[Yan Hamel]

Absolutely. More than ever, the industries will need to join forces and work together. At this point, all the provinces are working very well with Ms. Bell's team.

This must also go very far in the regions. The regions must take action. Everyone must work to regain ground, because all the countries will soon be opening up again and all the tourism products will be made available worldwide. We must be highly structured and we must revise the products according to this new normal. So yes, it's very important.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Lastly, I want to congratulate all members of the industry and to emphasize how important you consider it to work together. The key word is “co-operation.” This gives you the opportunity to connect with the various associations and to reach out to local stakeholders. It's a good challenge.

I want to congratulate the members of your industry for wanting to face this challenge together. I really admire this.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Our last round of questions will go to MP Masse.

You have the floor for two and half minutes.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

As New Democrats, we would also support having the Privacy Commissioner. Hopefully that motion does come forward, because it will be good for a lot of different reasons.

I want to thank Mr. Lemire for bringing the tourism sector to the committee's attention. What I've heard is a little bit disturbing, in the sense that there have been ongoing discussions and negotiations with the government, but it's almost been like a used couch: You've been put to the curbside to see what's going to happen next. This is not a strategy. I think you need a special sectoral strategy, as you're in unique situations because culture and human behaviour have to be shifted with far more difficulty in your industry.

Mr. Vézina, my father-in-law and mother-in-law used to have a small Chinese restaurant. I can just imagine that the overhead and the margins wouldn't be covered by the available space they will be able to use now for a long period of time. Windsor just came out of stage 2. Today, it was announced that we're going into stage 3.

What's the challenge of carrying that extra bulk space, that dead space in a restaurant that used to actually be a profitable space for turnover?

[Martin Vézina]

The main problem is that we don't use that space because of the social-distancing measures. We need to run at 50% capacity, not at full capacity, so there are fewer sales. As I said before, when we compare the sales of June 2020 with those of last year, they're less than 60% because of the pandemic. Consumers don't go in. That's the problem. It translates to loss of sales. And we pay the same rent—that's also the problem.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I know that's the end. I'll leave it at that and thank all the witnesses for being here.

Thank you, Madam Chair, for getting us through the technical problems we had today. I appreciate the time we've had.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Thank you so much.

I want to reiterate my thanks to the witnesses for being here, and to the members, the analysts, the translators and the IT group for, again, their patience and making sure that today was possible.

As members of Parliament, we all have an opportunity to make sure we also promote our local tourism industry. I reiterate that you can tell your constituents to think of travelling local, staying home and visiting la belle province, in our case, and supporting your local restaurants and hotels. We'll all get through this together.

Thank you.

With that, this meeting is adjourned.