ONTARIO — The Tourism Industry Association of Ontario (TIAO) has released it’s “Immediate Impact Management Strategy” (IIMS) for the tourism industry on the eve of its annual Queen’s Park Day event on Tuesday, March 31.
The strategy is a blueprint of short-term and long-term measures for government to enact to ensure that the multi-billion dollar industry survives COVID-19 and forms a major part of any economic recovery.
This year, Queen Park Day, which is usually a series of face-to-face meetings in the committee rooms of Queen’s Park between industry stakeholders and MPPs, has been turned into a virtual event. MPPs of all parties will be hearing directly from the front-line through video calls about the impact of COVID-19 and why further urgent action is required to ensure the industry survives this crisis.
Prior to the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the Ontario tourism industry was one of the top economic players in Ontario. With a five billion dollar annual tax revenue, and more than $36 billion in annual GDP contribution, and as one of the largest employers of young people, tourism in Ontario is a powerful economic force that impacts every region of the province.
“There’s never been a more critical time for the tourism industry to be talking directly with members of the provincial parliament,” said Beth Potter, President and CEO of TIAO. “COVID-19 has had an immediate and severe affect on the tourism industry. Businesses have closed, staff laid off and without more direct support, more businesses and jobs will be lost.”
TIAO’s IIMA is rooted in the quantitative and qualitative data collected by TIAO from businesses on the front-line in the tourism industry. It includes measures to halt business closures, mass lay offs, mortgage defaults and bring stability to the finances of business owners and employees during the pandemic.
Top line measures include greatly reducing water, gas and electricity bills for both commercial operations and for private residences by more than 50 per cent; and suspending commercial rent payments up to $10,000 for SMEs by coordinating across a database of SMEs that are closed due to COVID-19 restrictions.
It is suggested to develop payment deferral for tourism businesses for an indefinite period of time. Consideration of debt relief measures as businesses work to begin operations after COVID-19 related closures. Funds for financial aid to relieve debts of businesses that acquired debts during the COVID-19 global pandemic. We recognize on Friday, March 27 the government of Canada announced that SMEs will have access to $40,000 in interest free loans, with up to $10,000 being eligible for complete forgiveness. They further recommend a greater percentage, up to 50 per cent at $20,000, be eligible for complete forgiveness.
Another top line measure is to implement Hazard Pay for tourism and hospitality workers who are working in businesses that have been deemed essential services, including hotels and motels. It is also suggested to coordinate a ‘rent freeze’ on personal rents in Ontario. The Ontario tourism industry is one of the largest employers of youth, and therefore one of the largest employers of renters. With massive layoffs across our industry, tourism and hospitality workers will need financial support through a rent freeze. We anticipate that this will be put in place with a mortgage payment freeze for landlords.
“This year’s event will be a little different, we are swapping committee rooms for Skype and Zoom conference calls – but the discussions have never been more important,” said Potter. “COVID-19 poses an existential threat to Ontario’s tourism industry. The future of 200,000 businesses and more than 400,000 jobs across the province is at risk. “That is why tomorrow we will be urging MPPs to work collaboratively with the federal government to implement the measures in our IIMS”.
