Last week, like millions of other Canadians, ACTA waited with bated breath as Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland tabled the government’s first budget in more than two years. For more than 13 months, ACTA has intensively lobbied governments drawing attention to the dire economic situation faced by travel agencies, travel agents, independent travel agents, and the entire Canadian Travel Industry eco-system.
A week earlier, the Federal government announced the first financial relief package agreement with Air Canada. The package included mandatory customer refunds, and the protection of travel agent commission.
“This is significant,” said Wendy Paradis, President, ACTA. “In speaking with travel associations around the world, ACTA understands that Canada is the only country where a travel agent commission protection program has been included by the government airline financial relief package.”
In a meeting with Minister Freeland last week, ACTA learned that the budget assumes that vaccine rollout will continue at a rapid pace through the end of June – and Minister Freeland stated, “I believe Canadians are going to have a great summer”.
“While we hope that the Minister is correct, ACTA along with other travel and tourism associations stressed that the timelines are premature,” said Paradis. “Given that we are still under very strict lockdowns, borders closed and travel restrictions in place –travel agencies and travel agents will not see any notable increase in revenue in Q3 and Q4 when aid programs are set to expire.”
ACTA has studied the extensive 724-page federal government budget document and has identified the areas of benefit – and area of significant concern – to travel agents.
Rapidly declining aid starting in July 2021 will be devastating
Although the extension of financial aid programs through to September 2021 is welcome news to ACTA, there is a serious concern with the decline in the aid programs scheduled to begin in July.
“Leading up to the Budget, ACTA was hearing from multiple sources in Ottawa that there were strong indications that the government would be eliminating several financial support programs including CEWS, CERS and CRB programs,” said Paradis. “This move would follow New Zealand and Australia who ended their Job Keeper or wage subsidy programs effective March 31, 2021 causing a devastating impact on travel agent businesses.”
“So, we were pleased the Canadian government extended these financial aid programs, but have grave concerns about the aggressive tapering off for all of these programs in the travel industry.”
ACTA, along with other travel and tourism associations and our members, will continue to aggressively lobby the government to stress the importance of these financial support programs to our industry.
ACTA’s urgent lobby priorities over next 30 days
•Extend the critical CEWS, CERS and EI programs at maximum support to the end of year, or 90 days after travel restrictions lifted
•Maintain the CRB benefits at the current $500/wk level to the end of 2021, or 90 days after travel restrictions lifted
•Extend the RRRF application deadline and other liquidity programs (CEBA, HASCAP, etc) to the end of 2021, or 90 days after travel restrictions lifted, and expand the accessibility to sole proprietors for programs where this criteria is not in effect.
•Extend the CRHP to the end of 2021, or 90 days after travel restrictions lifted.
See the full budget here.
Good News in the Budget pending further detail
The Regional Relief and Recovery Fund (RRRF) application deadline was extended to June 30, 2021, though travel agents have experienced many challenges with this program, much like some of the other liquidity programs.
The government has proposed to create the Canada Recovery Hiring Program (CRHP), designed to help hardest hit businesses. The CRHP could provide opportunities as the CEWS program decreases, business begins to pick up and there is a need to rehire, although funding amounts decrease monthly and the program is only available June to November, 2021.
The government’s allocation of the $1B for Tourism is currently broken out to $500M for the Tourism Relief Fund –administered by the Regional Development Agencies, and $500M to Festivals, Canadian Heritage and Destination Canada.
Legislative process creates opportunity for input
It is important to keep in mind that while the Budget has been tabled, it still has to move through the parliamentary process and as such, by no means is this document the end product. The Budget is currently a framework, although the government will move quickly to introduce the Budget Implementation Act (BIA). The government’s BIA will need to go through the usual legislative process before becoming law – including important committee reviews by both the House and Senate where the legislation will potentially be amended several times before reaching its final form.
This means that our industry still has the opportunity to influence changes to the programs or direct how some of the monies earmarked for the programs can be utilized.
ACTA has already had meetings with some key Ministries and will continue this newest lobbying campaign over the next several weeks.
A reminder that ACTA is hosting important advocacy webinars with special guest MPs: the Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner, Shadow Cabinet Minister of Health on April 27th (English) https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/2507715957125547021and Stephanie Kusie, Shadow Cabinet Minister of Transport on April 29th (French).
Outbound consumer travel trends and insights by the Conference Board of Canada will also be shared.