Citizenship and Immigration committee  The duty-free stores certainly saw a huge impact, because the border was closed for almost two years, and people going across.... They are a one-way business. If you're leaving Canada, you can go and shop there. They certainly did see a huge impact. It was a big hit for a lot of businesses in border towns, from one end of the country to the other.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely, and thank you for that. There are three areas we would like to focus on. One is the temporary foreign worker program. We could expand the tourism NOC codes eligible for that and remove the LMIA requirements, application fee and having to wait on the 30-day job posting requirement, especially in this particular environment.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Off the top of my head, I believe that.... Do you know what? I would have to get back to you on that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  One is acknowledging that the tourism industry fulfills a needed position within the economy and that those positions that are filled through the temporary foreign worker program—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely. Thank you for the question. Through the chair, I will say that the processing time and backlog on travel visas have had an impact. We have heard from travellers trying to attend business events and meetings, but it has also been a bit of a challenge for some of the tour operators to get international groups into Canada.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you again for the question. Certainly, we are seeing that the hotel sector and the hospitality sector, so restaurants, are seeing the largest number of shortages across the way. Regarding the hotel sector, one anecdote you may have heard yourself, within your own riding, is that hotels are full.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Madam Chair and members of the committee, I'd like to thank you for having invited me today. My name is Beth Potter, and I'm the president and CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada. I acknowledge that we are gathered here today on the unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Anishinabe Algonquin nation.

Finance committee  There was in excess of $500 million. The $500 million was for the tourism relief fund, and then there was a little bit more on top of that.

Finance committee  I don't have that information. I have not been able to confirm that.

Finance committee  There wasn't anything allocated to tourism for 2022, because the $500 million for the tourism relief fund was a two-year program.

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  By the end of December of this year we should be at $80 billion.

Finance committee  No. Domestic tourism is better than international, but we're still down by 16% for domestic tourism and by 53% for international visitation. If you put the two of them together, we're down by 24% overall.

Finance committee  Twenty-four.

Finance committee  We have made a submission through the federal tourism growth strategy and within that submission, one of our major recommendations is to put a tool in place. A cabinet committee is the one that comes to mind for us, but we are willing to look at other options whereby those 24 ministries and departments are held accountable for the growth of the tourism industry.