A “broken system” and “ignored” requests to the province to fix it are behind the Canadian Association of Tour Operators (CATO) campaign for a “more effective and fairer traveller protection system for Ontario’s travel industry,” which is set to come to a head at TICO’s upcoming annual general meeting in September.

While it says it welcomes the provincial changes to the governance of the Travel Industry Council of Ontario (TICO) announced earlier this month, CATO (and industry partner ACTA) are continuing to call for significant improvements to the funding framework of the regulatory body and for a legislated consumer contribution protection insurance system (Compensation Fund).

The two tenets of the campaign will be introduced in a motion by at the TICO meeting on Sept. 26.

“CATO… applauds the Minister’s declaration to place consumer protection at the heart of TICO’s mandate. Let’s hope that concrete improvements will be made as soon as possible to modify the funding rules for TICO and the Consumer Compensation Fund,” Jean Hébert, Executive Director of CATO, said in statement issued yesterday. “The industry can no longer accept to bear the increased costs of an inadequate protection system for both the consumers and for the burden it imposes on the industry.”

Hébert also said CATO is “very positive” and “ready to cooperate” on the decision to create an Industry Advisory Council, which, he says “will provide a more effective means for the industry to share its concerns and challenges for the future of travel businesses in Ontario.”

It was noted that in a joint position, CATO and ACTA withdrew their four appointees from the TICO Board of Directors on July 25 in protest at TICO’s “inadequate consultation process on the funding of this regulatory body and on industry funding of the Travellers Compensation Fund.”

Hébert said the other fundamental reason for the withdrawal was “to put an end to an unacceptable conflict-of-interest situation that had gone on for too long and was becoming counterproductive on issues fundamental to the entire travel industry in Ontario.”

He added, “The changes introduced by the Minister finally resolve this situation. What remains now is to continue working on improving the consultation process as well as fixing the major issue of funding TICO and the Travellers’ Compensation Fund.”

To that end, he said all industry members will be asked to vote in favour of CATO’S motion, which will be presented by a registered member, at the upcoming TICO AGM.

Motion

That motion, proposed by CATO chair Brett Walker (Collette) and made on behalf of “The Travel Industry in Ontario” addresses several simmering claims by the organization and ACTA:

• Whereas TICO has proceeded with consultation through a third-party consultant, without providing all the relevant information and has rejected out of hand a fundamental change in the funding of the Compensation Fund to introduce a meaningful and sustained protection system including a legislated consumer contribution protection insurance as requested by the industry for many years;

• Whereas both ACTA and CATO have long insisted for a new funding model that will provide a fairer playing field for Ontario travel and tourism businesses and meaningful protection to the consumer;

• Whereas TICO, under the control of the Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery, is still ignoring the industries’ request;

• Whereas the Funding Review process doesn’t allow any consultation with all the proposed recommendations before it receives Minister’s approval, and preventing to take into consideration the Associations’ (CATO and ACTA) proposal;

• Whereas the TICO Consumer Compensation Fund, as it is structured today, is significantly broken. It was designed in the 70s in an era of a cash and cheque economy, and before the internet, e-commerce and where more than 90% of travel purchases are transacted using credit cards;

• Whereas the outdated model is unsustainable for Ontario’s travel industry in a global travel market, creating a disadvantage for Ontario travel companies making them uncompetitive;

• Whereas the industry is also recovering from a catastrophic global pandemic and adding new financial and administrative burden is not acceptable;

• Whereas if there had been no federal and provincial financial assistance, there would have been countless bankruptcies of our travel businesses in Ontario, and a total disaster for TICO’s underfunded compensation fund; Whereas in Québec, the consumer benefits from that protection for an insignificant fee.

To that end, the motion, the motion proposes that: “A legislated consumer contribution protection ‘insurance’ system be instated, for a meaningful Compensation Fund, without all the current event caps, to replacement the proven inadequacies of the current Compensation Fund.”