CANADA. The Liberal Party today announced plans to fund a bridge programme to support the tourism, hospitality, conventions and festival sectors survive the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The move, which came as the country’s election campaign began, was welcomed by the Frontier Duty Free Association (FDFA) and partners in a coalition that has come together to agitate for assistance for Canada’s hardest hit businesses. Among other measures, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau said he would extend the Canada Recovery Hiring Program to next March, as a support to the country’s hardest hit businesses.
“The commitment made in this announcement will help to ensure the survival of our industry,” said Beth Potter, President and CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada. “Six in ten of our coalition members said they would not survive without this kind of transition support. We have been advocating for a tailored, sector-specific support programme to ensure that Canada’s tourism economy can recover. This would help get us there.”
“Today’s announcement affirms the survival of anchor businesses in tourism, hospitality, events, arts and culture sectors, the large majority of which are locally owned small businesses,” added Susie Grynol, President and CEO of the Hotel Association of Canada. “The Trudeau government was responsive and innovative partners through the first 18 months of COVID-19, and today’s campaign announcement demonstrates the Liberal Party’s continued commitment to critical sectors of the Canadian economy that have been deeply imperilled by the pandemic.”
Festivals, concerts, conventions, Indigenous tourism experiences, fairs, exhibitions, and business and sporting events have been unable to operate since the outset of COVID, noted the industry partners, while international, business and government travel is expected to only slowly resume this Autumn. The forecast is for another eight months “almost as bad as the preceding 18 months of the pandemic”.
The Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy and Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy allowed businesses to survive the first 18 months of the pandemic. The programme announced by Trudeau “would enable the hardest hit of the hardest hit to survive until we can resume normal operations. Our coalition members have been advocating for a bridge programme that will only apply to those businesses that are truly hardest hit with a revenue decline of at least -40%”.
The Liberal campaign pledge is seen as a direct response to the Hardest Hit Coalition advocating for business survival. The FDFA is a Steering Committee member in the coalition, whose membership includes more than 120 associations across the country representing two million Canadians.
