I apologize, Madam Speaker. If it slipped out, I did not even realize it. Sometimes, via Zoom, we do not feel quite like we are in the House of Commons in the same way, and perhaps it did slip out.
However, this Liberal government has really ignored the fact that the tourism and hospitality industry had been the first hit and the hardest hit, and that it will probably be the last to recover. Prior to the pandemic, this was a $102-billion-a-year industry that supported one in 11 jobs in Canada. Since the pandemic struck in February of last year, the industry is at a net loss of over half a million jobs. That is an incredibly significant number, and those job losses disproportionately affect women, youth, visible minorities, new Canadians and indigenous peoples. This is a significant consequence of what is going on.
The Destination Canada's study that was recently put out indicates that if the borders remain closed until October of this year, and there is every expectation of that as the government is now talking about September as being the earliest that people will be vaccinated to any large degree, the recovery of tourism to its 2019 levels would not be expected until 2026. So there is a long road to recovery if we remain on the path we are on.
This industry is critically important for Canada, for Alberta and certainly to my riding of Banff—Airdrie. I will speak specifically to some of the statistics for Alberta.
Generally, as the 2018 stats point out, there were nearly 70,000 jobs in tourism, about a $6.5-billion contribution to our GDP and $8.2 billion in tourism expenditures, which brings in a lot of tax revenue as well. In my riding of Banff—Airdrie, it is of critical importance to communities like Banff, Canmore, Lake Louise and others. This is not only their main economic driver. It is almost the only economic driver in these communities.
I would argue, and I am sure many would agree, that this is the most beautiful riding in Canada. We have well over 1,000 businesses and about 16,000 jobs that are directly or indirectly related to tourism and hospitality, which is from the 2016 stats, so those numbers are probably higher more recently. However, this industry is going to have an incredible path forward in recovery. Domestic travel, as I mentioned, is going to be a crucial step in that recovery when it is safe and possible to do so. We will also need a plan to fill that revenue gap that comes from international travel and a way to help it recover.
I will read from a letter I recently received from a constituent who understands this. This is from Steve Pampel, who lives in Banff. He wrote, “Health and safety measures are critical to help rebuild the industry and to keep Canadians safe. Tourism businesses have complied with all the public health regulations and are committed to continuing compliance as the pandemic evolves.”
His letter continues, “We are asking for help to be able to plan and to be ready when Canadians are able to safely travel again. It is imperative that the tourism sector receives specific supports due to the unique nature of our jobs and businesses. We cannot wait for mass vaccinations for the government to invest in recovery measures. We need to plan for recovery now so that when the time is right and it is safe to do so, Canada's tourism sector can be ready to safely welcome Canadian and eventually international visitors.“
Steve is essentially bang on. This is the very message that I have been conveying since the very beginning of this pandemic. Obviously, there was a need to ensure that we helped many businesses through this, and I will talk a little about how some of those programs failed for this industry.
I first want to touch on this. It is absolutely critical for this industry, when the time comes to welcome visitors again, whether it be from other provinces or international visitors, to have some lead time to plan and prepare for that time. It is not just as simple as flipping a switch and letting people travel, like it can be with some businesses.
For barber shops, for example, when they are able to reopen, if they were able to survive through the lockdowns, people can just come in. People will probably be lined up for weeks, waiting to get their hair cut, like we saw after the first wave of COVID. For retail businesses, if they are able to survive, the guy down the street can go into a store and buy a pair of shoes or whatever it might be.
It does not work the same way with tourism. People plan ahead for vacations. People plan ahead for meetings and conventions, for festivals and events. These things do not happen overnight. They do not just open back up. There has to be a plan in place to prepare for these things.
The government needs to give some certainty to these businesses as to what the conditions are that will allow those reopenings, allow businesses to get going again, so they can welcome visitors and have the time to prepare to do that safely and effectively. That is absolutely job number one.
There have been some real failures in some of the programming. A lot of the seasonal businesses, the seasonal nature of them, are not covered. There has been this need for a dialogue with the industry and to listen to the industry.
I will point out that the government promised almost a year ago, 334 days ago in fact, that there would be specific actions taken for this industry. This industry has seen nothing. It is incredibly disappointed in the Liberal government. The all-party tourism caucus, which is Liberal-led, has not met since November 2019.
We, as Conservatives, have picked up the slack with our tourism recovery committee. We have heard from a whole host of people in this industry. They need solutions and they need them now, so they see a recovery and a plan from the government to help the industry recover and to put those half a million Canadians back to work.