Out of respect for Mr. Sébastien Lemire, the member who invited me, my presentation will be in French.
Good afternoon, everyone.
I'm the president and chief executive officer of Canada's largest cruise line. We operate 25 ships. In 2019, we carried 600,000 passengers, 65% of whom were from outside Canada. We had 750 employees. However, as of March 15, we were down to 33 employees. As a result of the Canada emergency wage subsidy, or the CEWS, we now have 250 employees.
I'm also a member of the board of directors of the Alliance de l'industrie touristique du Québec, which represents 10,000 businesses in 40 regional and sectoral tourism associations and belongs to the business leaders' group.
I want to thank the Honourable Sherry Romanado, the chair of the committee. I also want to acknowledge the committee members along with my colleagues from the Quebec and Canadian tourism associations.
I want to thank the federal government for the programs that it has developed and implemented to date. I also want to say that we greatly appreciate the fact that the government is actively paying attention to our current situation.
The tourism industry has some unique characteristics. First, labour is key to our tourism product. The customer experience is largely made possible as a result of the human assets of our employees. These employees have been severely affected by the pandemic. In a few moments, I'll outline some measures to help them in this area. Next, we operate throughout Canada. Lastly, we have a strong seasonal component, both summer and winter, and our production cycle is very different from the cycle of other companies. Our inventory is perishable. Every time we lose a working day, we can't get it back later. The tourists won't be there. The current crisis constitutes a major challenge for us. We're living in an unprecedented atmosphere of uncertainty. We need government support, since our industry will take a long time to recover from the crisis. However, our industry has the potential to make a major contribution to Canada's economic recovery.
According to the Destination Canada estimates, in the province of Quebec alone, we can expect a loss of over 120,000 tourism-related jobs and economic losses of $11 billion during the pandemic.
Our recommendations are simple and they boil down to two things. They directly concern two existing programs. We're asking for changes to two existing programs. The first relates to labour, and the second involves the cash flow of tourism businesses.
We recommend that the wage subsidy be extended to August 2021. Tourism businesses will be in survival mode until spring 2021, when the recovery begins. We need major support in this area. The program is currently scheduled to end on November 21. However, we need lasting support.
We'll then need a review of the calculation method. Under the old system, a 30% loss made us eligible for a 75% subsidy. Under the new system, a 30% loss will qualify us for only a 12% subsidy in the new program period starting in November. Our recommendation is that the safe harbour rule of 75% be extended to August 2021 or that the declining multiplier be maintained at 1.2 for the loss of revenue on the base subsidy, while the top-up subsidy remains in place. As you know, the new wage subsidy now consists of a base subsidy and a top-up subsidy. All this would have a major structuring effect on the entire industry.
Another significant component of an existing program is the expansion of eligibility for the regional relief and recovery fund, or the RRRF. The alliance recommends the addition of a third category of financial assistance for large structuring tourism companies with a turnover of at least $5 million that have suffered a minimum loss of 30% between April 1, 2020, and March 31, 2021, compared to the same period in 2019-20.
These companies stand out for their multiplier effect in the tourism ecosystem, the regional economic engine. The companies attract travellers, who spend locally when they visit nearby businesses. The maximum amount of financial assistance would be $5 million in the form of a subordinated loan.
The proportion of financial assistance—