Debates of Feb. 22nd, 2021

Industry, Science and Technology

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Mr. Speaker, before I get started, on behalf of the federal NDP and as the critic for small business and tourism, I want to acknowledge a huge loss. I believe that all parliamentarians will agree that we lost a wonderful leader in the tourism sector: Charlotte Bell, who was the CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada. She was an incredible champion for tourism businesses and the tourism sector across our country, and she helped grow this magnificent sector. We just lost Charlotte recently, and I want to extend our condolences to her family, to the team at the Tourism Industry Association of Canada and to all of its members. We will not forget Charlotte. She was an incredible asset, and we thank her for all of her contributions.

We are hearing stories in all 338 ridings across our country. Given that we have the longest coastline in the world, with three coasts, and we have incredible mountains, the scenery right across our country is magnificent, but every community has been impacted by COVID-19. The tourism and hospitality sector was a $103 billion sector prior to COVID-19 arriving in our communities and around the globe. We have lost 521,000 jobs in the tourism and hospitality industry since the pandemic hit us. It is the hardest-hit sector and will likely be the last sector to recover. COVID-19 has had a huge impact on those businesses.

I come from the tourism-based community of Tofino on the west coast of Vancouver Island, and I know all too well the importance of tourism not just to the local economy, but also to our culture and to our infrastructure. We have great infrastructure in place that many people have benefited from that goes well beyond the tourism sector, including bus transportation. Without the tourism sector, all of the infrastructure is going to be difficult to manage, and I will talk about the threat to that infrastructure in a moment.

I want to talk about the impact this has had particularly on tourism operators and those in the hospitality industry from coast to coast to coast. Many have had to close their doors, not just once but twice or three times. They have had to weather myriad programs, and as we have seen the government continues to design programs that are hard to access.

We need the government to continue to work with opposition members, like the New Democrats, that have brought forward changes.

For example, we put pressure on the government to change the wage subsidy, which was initially going to be 10%, to 75%. However, we need the government to go further for these businesses and listen to the tourism and hospitality sector.

We also brought forward the idea of a commercial rent program. Of course, it was initially rolled out to be landlord-driven, which made it very difficult for many businesses to qualify as they could not meet the criteria that were set out. We were glad to see the Liberals fix that program in the fall, but we were extremely disappointed that they did not take the eligibility back to April when they realized that there was a flaw in the design of the program. The Liberals admitted it, yet still refused to go back to April 1, expecting those businesses in the hardest-hit sector to survive. Some of those businesses would not get the help that maybe their neighbours got because some landlords would not or could not apply, for whatever reason. We are glad to see it fixed now, but we would like to see the Liberals take it back to April 1, in fairness to those businesses and their competition, to help them get through this.

Many of these businesses closed their doors to protect public health from the middle of March on. These small businesses and tourism operators are the unsung heroes in our country. We do not talk enough about them and their employees. This is a sector that is going to need significant investment, and for a lot longer than other sectors, because it is the hardest hit.

Clearly we supported the government fixing its CEBA loan program, but that loan program only goes so far. There are still people who are not able to access any of these programs, such as start-ups, for example. We put forward solutions to the government to use measurements from March moving forward. It could look at receipts, like it finally did with the CEBA loan program, as a measurement for doling out funds to legitimate businesses, and have measurements in place so it could support them. However, it has not done that.

There is a start-up in the riding of my colleague, the member for Cowichan—Malahat—Langford. He has repeatedly brought the attention of the government to a veterans' brewery, V2V Black Hops Brewing company. Some veterans, who put their lives on the line, started a social enterprise to help other veterans suffering from PTSD. They opened at the beginning of March and have not been able to access any supports: not the wage subsidy, not the rent program and not the CEBA loan. They have been left completely high and dry. One would think, once the government saw that the company had paid its employees since last March and had closed its doors to protect public health, it would come to the company's rescue and help these incredible heroes. No. The government has left them high and dry, just like a restaurant in Victoria that my colleague has been constantly bringing to the attention of government, and businesses in my riding that have been forgotten in Courtenay.

There has been a lack of support for really small micro-businesses, such as fish guides. Of the programs the government has rolled out, the wage subsidy does not work for them because they are self-employed and sole proprietors. They do not need the rent program, and most of them do not qualify for the CEBA loan because of the requirements in place. They need help. New Democrats were glad that the government extended CERB for those who had been impacted. We were very glad to see that, but the government needs to create different programs for different markets that have been left out, especially in the tourism and hospitality sectors. We want to make sure we help them.

Right now, there is a wild salmon crisis in British Columbia. There are plenty of opportunities to support the tourism sector, as well as to invest in restoration and enhancement, and to support sectors such as the aquaculture industry, which is having to diversify and build more resiliency. We are not seeing the support that is needed right now for areas that have both industry and tourism and need help. For example, we know that businesses in Port Alberni, where I live, were left out because the City leases them spaces for their restaurants, retail outlets and different businesses. They were left out because they lease from a small local government. That is unacceptable.

Why would they be left out because of that? They are paying rent and trying to keep their businesses going. They have employees and have families they need to feed. The government did not support them until late in the fall when it agreed, but then said it would not go back to the beginning of the spring as it did for everybody else.

I want to talk about the solutions for a moment, because the Tourism Industry Association of Canada has done an incredible job of bringing forward a recovery plan, as has the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada and many of the travel and transport sectors that we rely on and benefit from. Obviously all Canadians benefit from our air and aviation sector, but there is also the bus sector.

My colleagues in the NDP on Vancouver Island and I wrote a letter to the new Minister of Transport urging him to do something to save Wilson's bus lines. We cannot lose Wilson's bus lines. This is absolutely critical infrastructure for people, especially the most marginalized, on Vancouver Island. The company relies on tourism for the bulk of its income to keep afloat. Many people in the ridings benefit from it.

I think about people who live in remote first nations, like the Hesquiaht, the Ahousaht, the Yuu-cluth-aht or the Huu-ay-aht. All of these are Nuu-chah-nulth nations. I can speak to all of them in my riding that benefit from the tourism infrastructure that is in place, like the bus services to get to doctors' appointments or to connect with family members. Many of them struggling to get to a doctor rely on bus transportation, especially the elders. Some of them cannot drive. They might have vision or health issues and cannot get to appointments. There are people who have barriers and are living with disabilities who absolutely require support and service.

The government is telling businesses in the transportation sector to borrow more money. The government says it is going to collapse the sector because people are not going to come. Businesses are not able to do that anymore. They can only borrow so much. They need the Liberals to step up to the plate. The Liberals keep talking about supporting the transportation sector, but they have not done that.

I want to thank my colleague for Skeena—Bulkley Valley because he has been an incredible champion. On the Highway of Tears, he talked about the impact of losing Greyhound, as many communities have in northern Saskatchewan. My former colleague, Georgina Jolibois, raised this issue as well. It is absolutely critical that we create an essential bus network. There is now a coast-to-coast bus coalition advocating for the federal government to ensure that we have that connection right across our country. We have downloaded this to provincial governments, and it has now become piecemeal. It is unacceptable, especially for the most marginalized. We need to connect Canadians coast to coast, and we need to make sure that they get the support they need.

The 2021 tourism recovery plan that I talked about, from the Tourism Industry Association of Canada, is absolutely fabulous. It is very clear and straightforward. The association has identified its needs. It needs the government to respond with supports. We know that HASCAP is out the door, but we want to make sure that financial institutions are ready to receive HASCAP applications and move quickly. They need to be available on a per-property basis. My colleague for Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie has been hounding me. He said that many businesses in his riding are not eligible because they have multiple locations and they are not getting the support they need. The government needs to change the flexibility of all its programs so that people with multiple businesses that are not at arm's length can actually get the support they need. They should not be penalized. It is going to cost jobs and livelihoods, and it is going to impact families.

The RRRF funding has been absolutely a disaster. Only 14% of those who have applied were able to get it. It has been a terrible rollout so far. The wage subsidy needs to be accessible to 90% of those businesses until we are back to normal, and the wage subsidy also needs to be backdated and to use the measurement of 2019, but I also know businesses that were caught in the middle. A business in Tofino, for example, closed its resort in 2019 to do some renovations and some work. It is out of luck. When businesses close their doors and cannot get these really important funding needs, the CEBA loan will get them through a day if they are lucky. It is critical that the Liberals amend these changes and support these folks.

Going back to the aviation sector and transportation sector, we need a plan. We need the Liberals to ensure that they are providing some relief to Nav Canada and the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority to get those services going and make sure they are funding them.

Again, I talked about the Indigenous Tourism Association. I had a frantic call from the CEO who was told that his budget had been trimmed from $3 million a year. The ITA has been absolutely essential to growing the indigenous tourism sector, which is the fastest growing sector in Canada. The ITA provides critical support in getting loans out the door to over 800 indigenous businesses that it has personal connections with. This is also the most fragile business demographic in our country. The CEO was told the ITA was going to get cut from $3 million to $500,000. This is after all of the work that it has done. I hope the government is going to recognize in the budget the importance that the ITA has and is going to have in the recovery.

We have seen how the government has failed indigenous businesses when it comes to the wage subsidy, for example. A lot of indigenous-led businesses were ineligible at the beginning. We went to the wall to get the government to fix that eligibility for those businesses that were ineligible because of the design of their business. Again, we need the government to be flexible.

I have talked about some of the important pieces. Obviously, testing is critical to the tourism sector. We need the government to invest in rapid testing and to look at other countries around the world where we have seen success with rapid testing. We also need to look at incentives. We saw the Harper government get rid of a really important GST rebate that we gave to visitors. Indeed, we are the only industrialized country in the world that charges a tax on an export sector like tourism. It is absolutely critical that we look at this.

I also want to talk about some really important sectors, like the events sector, which has not been receiving the support it needs. It is critical we look at ways to support that sector and get creative because a lot of the people working in it are not going to be be employed until next year.

When it comes to the NDP and our approach to the tourism and small business sector, there are some critical needs that were in play before the sector hit this turmoil. We knew that businesses could not grow without affordable housing. If someone goes to any resort municipality in British Columbia or any tourism-based economy in Canada, they will say their biggest challenge is finding employees, and the reason they cannot find them is housing.

We have an opportunity not just to recover and build back better, as we hear from the government, but to build back better so that our sector grows, not just bring it back to where we were. We want to continue to grow. That is something the NDP wants to see. We want to see more non-market housing. In the 1970s and 1980s we saw our housing stock go 10% non-market housing to 3% today. Europe is at 30%. It is absolutely critical that we have that infrastructure.

Child care is absolutely critical. The Comox Valley Chamber of Commerce says that the number one need right now is affordable, universal and accessible child care. That is absolutely critical to the tourism sector, which is why it is so critical to the NDP that we invest in these important infrastructure pieces.

A dental and pharmacare plan is important, because we hear about insurance costs sky rocketing for the residential and commercial sectors, and also for dental and medical care. Small business people, especially in the tourism and hospitality industry, are so close to their staff. They care about them. They know that if they do not get those investments, their staff are more likely to miss work and more potentially more likely not even to be presentable to the public if they are missing teeth, and small business people are less likely to grow their occupations as a result. It is absolutely critical for us to invest in our employees, and that is what small business and the tourism sector want.

Of course, they want protection of the environment and want to see us grow back and build back better. I want to revert back, being that I am in coastal British Columbia, to say that we need to make sure that we save our wild salmon. Members have heard me speak repeatedly in the House about that. These are critical supports. We need investments in our ecology, and habitat protection and restoration. This is going to be critical to the recovery of British Columbia when it comes to the tourism sector and, as we know, it is a critical sector. In the $105-billion sector that tourism represent in our country, B.C. has a huge share of the pie. Salmon is the cornerstone, not just of our tourism sector, but also of our food security, our economy and our culture.

There are other things that I could talk about. I could talk way longer than 20 minutes about the tourism industry and how critical it is that we support it, but we also see the big banks not playing a fair game. We heard from Dan Kelly and the Canadian Federation of Independent Business just over the weekend talking about merchant fees. The interchange fees are still way too high, especially for online business. We have all these online businesses that have pivoted to being online and they are paying these absolutely outrageous rates. These fees need to be capped and need to be more in line with those in Europe. Right now in Europe, merchant fees are 0.5%. Here in Canada they are a voluntary 1.4%. That is not good enough.

We saw the Liberals bring forward a private members' bill in the last Parliament. For four years, that bill got moved I believe about 16 times. Clearly, the Liberals have the backs of the big banks and the credit card companies. They did not want to debate it. We need to cap merchant fees and be in line with Europe and Australia.

I want to thank everybody in the tourism industry. We need to make sure they are a priority. They are the hardest hit sector.

[Mel Arnold, Conservative, North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

Madam Speaker, the member for Courtenay—Alberni knows how important tourism is, as I do here in the North Okanagan—Shuswap, and I want to talk about how long the government has been failing our tourism sector.

We are going on almost a year now since we started calling for vaccines, rapid testing and so on, so that we could keep our tourism sector open. I see it as a failure of the current government to address this, and now we are into a second wave with the threat of a third wave.

Does the member agree that vaccines and rapid testing are so important for our tourism sector to get back on its feet?

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Madam Speaker, absolutely, and I know tourism is such an important part of the economic makeup where he is in the Shuswap and Okanagan. I also thank my colleague for his constant advocacy for the wild Pacific salmon.

The member nailed it. When it comes to tourism businesses, we need tax credits first to help them get through the costs associated with testing. That is absolutely critical. As well, the government needs to provide financial support for rapid testing. That has to happen and we need to get vaccine into Canada. We see how far behind we are falling other nations, and it is absolutely critical we get that into place.

[Louise Charbonneau, Bloc, Trois-Rivières, QC]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Courtenay—Alberni for his presentation. He talked about the events sector and the salmon crisis in his part of the country.

Quebec has an annual springtime event: sugar shacks. This is a very important part of Quebec's agri-tourism sector. Over half the members of the sugar shack operators' association have had to close their doors. The government seems to have forgotten this industry.

Does my colleague think these demands could be expanded to include these people, who are often forgotten but who are responsible for an event that is important to the country?

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Madam Speaker, these are the types of niche businesses, like festivals and events, for example, that are being left out. The wage subsidy is not going to get them through this; the CEBA loan certainly is not enough; and the rent program does not help them, and borrowing a bunch more money is not going to cut it. They are not going to be able to do that; they cannot absorb it. They need liquidity to ensure that those festivals and cultural events will be in place next year. Hopefully we will be back to normal next year.

The government needs to start looking at things and being more flexible. Right now the programs are so rigid and are leaving so many people out, and this is an excellent opportunity. I want to thank the member for that question, and let us hope that the government makes the right choice and creates more flexibility and does better outreach to sectors like the sugar bush sector and the folks in it.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague, the member for Courtenay—Alberni, for his tireless advocacy. In his speech, he so articulately laid out the incredible impact of this pandemic on tourism operators. When I think of northwest B.C., I think of the steelhead guiding lodges in the Bulkley Valley, Haida Gwaii and the tour operators there, the cabin rentals and other small businesses that have been so dramatically hit by this crisis.

Does my hon. colleague think that the current programs created by the government can be adjusted to meet the needs of these small tourism operators, or do we need a new set of programs specifically tailored to the needs of that unique sector?

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Madam Speaker, that is a fabulous question. I think about the HASCAP program, for example, which is not designed like the CEBA loan.

With the CEBA loan, obviously, applicants get the $60,000 loan and only have to repay $40,000. If they pay back the rest, they get $20,000 towards the losses they have incurred. We need that in the HASCAP program and the bigger programs, otherwise these lodges and businesses are just not going to be able to survive. They cannot take on more and more debt. It is just not achievable. Moreover, a lot of these programs are not going to help businesses. The wage subsidy is not going to help an owner whose lodge is empty. The rent program is not going to help them if their lodge is floating on the water.

There are huge gaps. The member is absolutely right that we have to develop a better framework and look at those sectors that are the hardest hit, and that is the tourism and hospitality sector. We are all feeling it, as members of Parliament. I have seen each and every person who cares so much about the restaurants and the businesses in their ridings bringing forward these asks and requests of the government to be more flexible. We are just not seeing that. It is highly disappointing. This is a critical sector.

[Ron Liepert, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

Madam Speaker, I am not sure how the member covered all of that in 20 minutes. He covered a lot of ground around the programs and who has been missed.

I want to ask the member if he would not concur with the fact that at the end of the day, the tourism industry, and a lot of these small businesses, do not want government handouts. They want to get back to business and doing what they do, which they could if we had had a better program in place for vaccines and that sort of thing, with the possibility that the border could be opened this summer.

Both Alberta and British Columbia rely heavily on U.S. tourism. I would like the member to comment a little on that.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Madam Speaker, that is a good question.

My colleague and many colleagues from across political parties have been part of the effort to work with the United States, as members of the Canada-United States Inter-Parliamentary Group. He and I would be part of the group from the Pacific Northwest.

We do not have a lot of integration. We need more integration. Obviously, ensuring that vaccines are here in Canada would make a difference. We also need to be working together more collectively on a regional basis. We are not doing that.

Right now, the number one priority has to be getting vaccines to the provinces, and getting them out the door so we can return to normal as fast as we can. Then we can work collectively as a region with our biggest trading partner and our biggest partner when it comes to tourism, the United States, so that we can open the border and get people moving and back to our tourist destinations.

[Lindsay Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Madam Speaker, I am so grateful that our critic for small business and tourism was able to get that speech in, because he did cover a great deal.

What I have heard a lot as the critic for status of women and from my local community is that the government has left behind those within that aviation sector and the tourism sector, and especially the women who are doing the bookings for travel. They have taken a huge hit.

What has the government done to help them or not? Could the member cover that? Also, with regard to the aviation sector, quite a lot of flights have been cut at the London. What has not been done and what should be done to help those workers as well?

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Madam Speaker, that is a great question, and I want to thank my colleague, because she has been talking a lot about this issue, and especially about how women are being impacted.

We talked about the importance of child care and the importance of that as part of a “she-covery”. We talked about those travel agents, and I am really glad she brought up travel agents, because the government keeps talking about helping out with a transportation recovery plan. One thing we do know is that the big hits are going to be on the travel agents.

Right now they are having to repay airlines and big corporations tons of money that they just do not have. They have taken bookings, and a lot of the people in the travel agent sector are female. That is clearly evident from the numbers. They have been asking to be part of a transportation recovery plan, and it needs to happen sooner rather than later.

The whole transportation sector is hanging on by a thread, and it is absolutely essential that we do not leave anyone out, especially travel agents and especially the aviation sector. We need to create a national aviation strategy, as other countries have done. We need to protect infrastructure for women more than men, especially for those who are using the buses. After the Highway of Tears, we have seen what happens when we lose that transportation.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleagues from Edmonton Centre and Niagara Falls for their speeches earlier, as we use the tabling of this report highlighting the appointment of Marsha Walden to Destination Canada as an opportunity to talk about tourism in this country. I also wish to inform the House that I will be sharing my time with the member for Banff—Airdrie.

There is no question that the industry has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been ongoing for a year now. Our external borders remain closed to foreign visitors who may want to come and discover all the splendour of our beautiful country. No one knows when they will be able to reopen.

Travel decreased dramatically in 2020, while 2019 had been a record year. There was some hope that by increasing testing and vaccination capacity, certain degree of recovery could be expected by the summer of 2021, but when the Prime Minister admitted that the vast majority of Canadians would not be vaccinated until September 2021, that dream was shattered for many people.

It is a national disgrace that we are a G7 country that is ranked 58th in the world in terms of vaccinations. We even had to turn to the COVAX fund for third world countries because the government put all its eggs in one basket at the start of the pandemic, falsely believing that the Chinese company CanSino would come to the rescue. Consequently, we are lagging behind and find ourselves at the bottom of the list for orders for other vaccines which, as we can see in Israel, work very well.

Today we learned that even with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that are finally being delivered this week, after weeks of delay, only 8% of the Canadian population will be vaccinated by the end of March, or one month from now. This means that festivals that were cancelled from last summer onwards will not be held again this year.

This is tragic and devastating news for the events industry. The Government of Canada did create a wage subsidy, as did many other countries, and we supported this measure, but the wage subsidy program is set to expire at the end of June. What will happen then? People want predictability. That is what we hear most in our talks with the tourism industry.

I know that it is not easy to predict a reopening date when governments are making day-to-day decisions based on the infection and hospitalization rates in our communities. That is why we are so focused on vaccination. Even with borders reopened, we know that very few people will want to come if there is a risk they will get sick, because if they contract COVID-19 while on vacation, public health officials will order them to quarantine immediately for 10 days when they receive a positive test result. That is difficult to do when travelling. As we saw last spring, it was not easy to repatriate all of the Canadians who were abroad.

Meanwhile, a lot of businesses are in survival mode. They are largely dependent on programs like the emergency wage benefit, the Canada emergency rent subsidy and the Canada emergency business account.

Will the government extend the programs indefinitely? That is a good question. This year's deficit will be around $400 billion, or maybe even more. How much will it be next year because of the government's inaction? Can we get an answer? It is not certain.

The sad reality that came out of our discussions with the hospitality sector is that the wage subsidy is still not 100% effective. The program was put in place to maintain an employment relationship between workers and their employers in the hope that they would return to work quickly after the first lockdown, but that is not at all what happened.

With the pandemic, there was a major labour shortage in our regions, especially in the regions in Quebec. Many regions like mine and even those east of mine in the Gaspé had a hard time finding workers. Instead of twiddling their thumbs, some decided to switch careers to another sector. Some might say that is a good thing. After all, there are no bad jobs in this country. As our esteemed former finance minister Jim Flaherty used to say, the only bad job is not having a job. We wonder what the government plans to do post-COVID to better match up future workers with the tourism sector, because there is a real fear that if we keep the sector closed for too long, the people will leave. That is already happening.

I was speaking with people in tourism just today. It will be extremely difficult to replace all the employees.

Earlier, one of my colleagues was saying that more than 500,000 people have lost their jobs in the tourism sector and that the vast majority will not return. The future is looking extremely difficult.

In addition, the unemployment rate is still very high. Efforts will have to be made to match available workers to available jobs. Last week, Radio-Canada reported that the number of long-term unemployed workers doubled over the past year. Does the government have any plan for getting new workers into a sector that many people are likely to have left following 18 to 24 months of inactivity? I look forward to hearing what my colleagues have to say about that.

Today, I got a letter from Frédérique Guignard, a young single mom in her 30s who was in the process of taking over her family's travel agency. In her letter, she requested my help with the catastrophic situation faced by charter tour operators, whom she described as the forgotten members of the tourism industry since the pandemic hit. She explained that, because of the extended border closure and the cancellation of cultural, sports and educational travel, charter buses have stood idle for nearly a year now. She said that, over the past year, her business has lost 93% of its revenue, which amounts to $700,000.

If I were a businessman and my company was reporting losses of $700,000 this year, I would be very worried about my future. Ms. Guignard is therefore quite right to be worried about hers.

Charter tour operators carry groups formed in advance, organized mainly by wholesale travel agencies, tour operators and domestic travel agencies that book charter coach services directly or indirectly. These carriers therefore play an important role in the mobility of tourists who come to visit our beautiful province, similar to air and rail transportation.

Ms. Guignard wants to share with the House the results of a study conducted by these carriers who are well aware that bus travel will not resume any time soon. Charter tour operators were not able to take advantage of the tourist boom of the summer of 2020. As it stands now, they do not see how 2021 will be any better. This crisis is expected to last until 2022 in the travel industry. A wait that long could destroy Ms. Guignard's business, which, she said, she will no longer be able to support in terms of its organizational structure and capital costs, as they require a great deal of funding considering that a fleet of coaches represents a liability of $600,000 to $700,000 per unit. That is to say nothing of the cost of skilled labour, since Ms. Guignard had to lay off half of her staff.

I understand that the government implemented programs, programs that we supported. However, Ms. Guignard is not able to continue to operate her business because she has lost 93% of her revenue.

Many industry stakeholders are in the same boat. I have had discussions with people who work in the events industry, which includes festivals, as my colleague from Abitibi—Témiscamingue reminded us earlier. He spoke about Val-d'Or and sugar shacks, many of which are currently at risk and think they may have to close in the coming weeks. That is extremely worrisome.

My colleague spoke earlier about flexibility. The government needs to adapt to the realities of an industry as unique as the tourism industry, which reflects the vitality of all of our regions. From Vancouver to the Gaspé or the Lower St. Lawrence, where I live, the tourism industry is an extremely important aspect of the economy. I think that we need to find ways to support it in the long term and to provide it with some predictability because it will get going again by 2022 at the latest and the government needs to be there to help it do that.

[Marilyn Gladu, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his excellent speech.

There is also a border crossing in Sarnia—Lambton. We miss the tourists who generally come for the holidays and celebrations. Many businesses, such as duty-free shops, are not in a good position to succeed.

What businesses have been hardest hit by the pandemic in my colleague's riding?

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her excellent question.

In fact, many sectors in my riding have been affected. Obviously the pandemic has really hit the tourism sector. I think that is the reality. For its part, the manufacturing industry is doing relatively well right now. We are even seeing a shortage of employees in some manufacturing sectors in my riding.

To add to my colleague's question, I would like to come back to something I forgot to mention earlier.

As soon as people within Canada start to get vaccinated, what can we do to allow them to resume their tourist activities? Could we, through the help of a passport or some other means, identify them as having been vaccinated to allow them to travel from region to region?

Different countries in Europe have already adopted this approach. We could bring in something like that. We could at least think about it in the next few weeks so that this summer people can have this passport I mentioned that would identify them as having been vaccinated. Then they would be able to travel between provinces.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Madam Speaker, to open the economy and save the industries we need two things: vaccination and rapid testing. Those are two important elements to be able to put things into perspective. For the future, internal tourism is a big industry also and we have to pay attention to it as well. Therefore, in the opinion of my colleague, what can be done, what were the government's failures and how can we rebuild the tourism economy quickly?

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague.

At the start of the pandemic last spring, the government turned to CanSino to produce vaccines. This unfortunately did not go well, and we found ourselves without a solution in August. The government then signed contracts for vaccines, but five of the seven companies with which it signed contracts still do not have an approved vaccine. As a result, today, we are at the back of the pack globally. This is unbelievable. People are talking to me about this every day.

The government's failure over the past few months will have a definite impact on the tourism industry.

[Nelly Shin, Conservative, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Madam Speaker, for my riding, British Columbia at large and the west coast especially, tourism is a very huge part of the economy. I really appreciate that the member mentioned the need for rapid tests and vaccines, because they would definitely open up industries like sport fishing and attract many tourists from the U.S., with improved border restrictions.

How are we going to help the tourism industry businesses get back on track if we do not have rapid testing and do not have vaccines coming quickly? What is the best recommendation the member can offer to help them?

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Madam Speaker, at present, the watchword truly is vaccination.

The government must pick up the pace and stop blaming the provinces, given that the problem does not originate with the provinces, but rather with the federal government, which is not providing the vaccines.

I believe that the government has once again failed in its duty to ensure that it has enough vaccines, which is why we are in a tough spot again today.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

Madam Speaker, because the topic at hand, of course, relates to our very important tourism industry, I would be remiss if I did not speak to another very recent appointment in the tourism industry. It is that of the new president and CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada, or TIAC, Beth Potter. Beth has done a lot of great work over the years with the tourism industry in Ontario, and I know that her great work will carry over in her advocacy for the industry federally. We welcome her to that post and look forward to working with her to help the tourism industry in its recovery from both COVID and the lack of government response we have seen to the very heavy devastation this industry has faced as a result of the pandemic and some of the measures that have been put in place for it.

Obviously, we are here today to talk about the order in council appointment of Marsha Walden to the role of president and CEO of the Canadian Tourism Commission, or Destination Canada as it is known. I think the context would be a good starting point.

Destination Canada is the marketing arm of the federal government for tourism. It markets our industry internationally, for tourism bound to Canada. Since the spring of last year, borders have essentially been locked down, and now many of our airlines have been directed not to bring flights in from many destinations outside of Canada. It is going to be an incredible challenge for Destination Canada to fulfill its role. Some have argued there needs to be a pivoting of the organization in the short term to domestic markets, but I would argue that it is more important to have a plan from the Trudeau government on how this industry will recover.

The tourism and hospitality industry specifically has been—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

I remind the member that he is not to mention the name of individuals, whether it is the Prime Minister or anybody else. I know he is well aware of this and that names slip out once in a while.

The hon. member.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

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.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Madam Speaker, the opposition whip is part of the House leadership team that sent the troops in to burn as much time as they possibly could in the House so they could avoid talking about the bill that would actually help Canadians, a bill that is the fall economic statement, that already has had seven days worth of debate in the House.

Given the fact that the opposition whip has taken the floor, I thought I might be able to ask him a question. Could he possibly enlighten the House as to when the Conservative Party will stop basically filibustering the fall economic statement, which has been debated for seven days already? A normal budget bill is only debated for five days? Could he let us know when he thinks he might be able to allow the House to vote on that?

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

Madam Speaker, I am incredibly saddened by the politicization that we just heard from the Liberal member.

It is incredibly frustrating to hear this when we are talking about a critically important industry in our country. The fact is that half a million Canadians are out of work as a result of the inaction of his government, yet he says that the debate is not important today. What does he tell those 500,000 Canadians whose jobs are hanging in the balance while his government does nothing?

The politicization of this, somehow characterizing it as something that is not important saddens me. The tourism industry is critically important to our country and those workers deserve to know what the plan is for the economic recovery of that industry.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Madam Speaker, our colleague from Courtenay—Alberni made the point that among the many aspects of the tourism sector that are falling through the cracks the coach bus lines are particularly of concern. He mentioned Wilson's, which is one of the key parts of our ecosystem for ground transportation in B.C. I would note that there is TRAXX Coachlines in Alberta. Pacific Western is based in Alberta.

I wonder if my hon. colleague would agree that this is part of the sector that needs immediate support so it is in place and functioning when we begin to recover our economy.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

Madam Speaker, there are certainly a lot of examples. In 10 minutes, it is very difficult to give all of them. There is obviously the airline sector, busing, travel agents, tour companies, restaurants and hotels. One could go on and on naming the parts of the industry that are suffering, and they all need to be part of the recovery.

However, the only way they can have that opportunity is for, first of all, the government to get its act together in terms of getting vaccinations into the arms of Canadians and giving some kind of an indication to this industry, and the people who are or want to be employed in it, that a recovery plan is in place. They need to know what the criteria are that will allow those things to happen so they can start to plan and prepare now. Whether it will be this fall or next year, whatever the case might be, they need to have a long lead time to be prepared to properly reopen and get the recovery plan in place.

The government needs to get its act together to help bus companies, airlines, travel agents, restaurants and hotels. These people deserve answers from the government.