Mr. Chair, I thank my colleague for this important question.
I'm quite aware that several communities benefit greatly from the business of cruise ships. When we made this decision, it was not easy, but it's consistent with all our decisions from day one.
As a government, we have told Canadians we will do whatever it takes to protect Canadians. We are in the middle of a pandemic. My colleague may recall what happened on cruise ships last year at the beginning of the pandemic, how easy it was to transmit COVID, and how difficult it was for people, but I know the industry knows this, and they are doing their best to protect future passengers.
Let me assure my colleague the reason we did this until next year is that we wanted to make sure we took the time to base our decisions on science and data. Today, infection rates and hospitalization rates are still high. We wanted to give a signal to the sector because if we said six months, they would be selling tickets two months from now, and we may have to change that decision if we discover it's too soon.
We wanted to give a sense of stability to the industry. Having said that, if data and science and public health advice tell us we are in a better place, we might be able to change that, but for now it is really important to have a clear and decisive decision for the protection of Canadians' health and safety.