Thank you, Minister. This association agrees too. It's not a matter of safety with them. They are all for the electronic devices. It's more just a matter of how they've been lumped in with something and they don't really fall into that category. I will follow up with you with some written questions in regard to this and also questions from Mr. Drury. I would appreciate a response to that, and so would his association.
I'd like to move on now to the cruise ship industry.
Minister, the cruise ship industry has been decimated, as you know, through this pandemic. I'll give you some numbers and hopefully you're aware of these. In 2019 the Canadian cruise industry comprised 29,000 jobs paying $1.43 billion in wages. That same year, the industry generated a total of $4.25 billion in economic activity.
The federal government has banned cruise ships from docking in Canadian ports until February 2022, obviously greatly impacting this industry. Why has that been put out so long? The cruise industry has done everything they can possibly do to make it safe. They've enhanced all their cleaning, their medical, their inspections and their testing. Could you please explain to me when this will be lifted and how this is going to be going forward?