Madam Speaker, it is an honour to be here in the House to continue with this debate. I have been listening to the comments from all sides here, especially many of those of the members of our Conservative caucus on the concerns that we are seeing in western Canada.
I am going to attach on to some of the discussion after question period of my colleague from Calgary Midnapore. She was talking a lot about the transportation industry and the most recent closures and lockdowns when it comes to coming into Canada, the international travel ban and the impact that it is going to have on airlines. I wanted to take that one step further, because there are people who are booking these tickets, and I am sure many members across the chamber have had people from the travel and tourism sector contact their offices.
I want to read this letter into the Hansard, so that people can understand what is happening to businesses that are part of travel and tourism. This letter comes to us from Marion Rose. I have known Marion for a number of years. Twenty-five years ago she hired my best friend to be a travel agent there, and it is a very respectful company. She started off her letter by asking about my family. She then continued:
Elgin Travel & Cruises has been in business now for 32 years at the Elgin Centre and have been a huge contributor to our community. In March of this year we employed seven full time staff. As you are aware, once COVID hit, we were virtually out of business and, as no one is travelling or can travel with the present “avoid all essential travel” advisory and the 14 day quarantine in place.
Just to remind members she is talking about the impacts of that back in March of 2020. We are now 10 months later, and there still has not been any work for this recovery. Continuing with her letter, she says:
This however does not mean that we are not working, as clients are still being repatriated, cancellations for bookings throughout 2020 and now into 2021 are being processed and either rebooked for the second time or insurance claims filed. Our staff are still working 40 hours a week just to process the above. The Wage Subsidy to the end of August was a welcome assistance to allow us to keep our staff. However with the new reductions, and still at over 100% decrease in sales, we are flailing.
This letter was written to me back in November. This was from three months ago today, today being February 2, and the government still has not stepped up. We know that it has just put forward a new program and applications started on February 1, but I am talking about a business that in March 2020 was closed down. By the time this company is looked at and the government provides the supports, this company may not be there.
These are the types of challenges that Marion Rose from Elgin Travel has shared with me. She is working very closely as one of the independent travel agencies that are across Canada talking about this, and we have to understand the impact of this and the impact to these livelihoods.
In my case, I look at the demographics of the people who are working in that sector. We know that over 85% are women or members of the LGBTQ community. We have to look at the fact that we have talked about a she-recovery. I say there is no recovery, so I ask how this could be a she-recovery. This specific group has not been looked at.
Yes, the government is going to be looking with high priority at issues of travel and tourism, but my concern is that money has not come out of the door yet, and it is going to be a year. These workers have looked at some of the travel restrictions that we have coming into Canada and the impact that is going to have on them, and they are just asking for a break.
I have spoken to many other members of our community, and because I have such a short period of time, I wanted to talk about some of the things that have been changed with the rent subsidy. I understand that the rent subsidy has changed. and now small businesses are able to apply, but I do not know if the government has considered the following scenario.
What if someone who is a hair designer is working, but they do not have that lease agreement? They are being asked to pay $500 to $700 a month so that they can rent a chair, but that chair is not open to the public because no one can come to their facility. However, they still have to pay that rent.
As well, those who are making less than $30,000 and who may not have a CRA account, are still having to pay for a lease. The government is supposed to have a simple tax return, and so many of these small businesses with small incomes are still doing it on their personal tax returns and not through CRA. What we have done by doing this has closed them off as well.
I am so pleased to be able to speak here, and I hope the government will start getting it right, because we are going to continue to lose more businesses in this country.