September 15 - Over the course of many weeks, the National Airlines Council of Canada reached out to Canadians to ask them to write their local Members of Parliament to ask them to urgently prioritize a plan to safely restart travel and tourism.

 

The response was overwhelming. Canadians sent more than 312,000 personal messages to the federal government from ridings representing every province and territory in Canada. In particular, Canadians in the Greater Toronto Area cared about this issue, making up more than 21% of total participants. Further, more than 53% of emails sent were from Canadians who live in a riding held by the governing Liberal Party.

 

In response to COVID-19, Canadians have worked hard to establish safe and responsible ways to restart their lives, with all levels of government across the country releasing various plans for the phased reopening of communities and businesses. But so far, the federal government has not released a clear plan to support the safe restart of the travel and tourism sector.

 

Canada needs the federal government to design and release a plan that will safely and responsibly restart travel and tourism for everyone; be they travelers, small business owners that depend on the industry, or their employees. The results of this grassroots outreach show that Canadians believe it is possible, and necessary, to move forward in a responsible manner, and they have asked the Government to undertake the following actions as part of a restart plan:

• Rapidly establish a national framework to ease interprovincial travel restrictions
• Clearly communicate to Canadians that they can travel safely by air to visit their favourite Canadian destinations
• Establish reciprocal border agreements with targeted safe countries

 

“The Prime Minister and his cabinet must take urgent action to support the thousands of business and employees across the country, in communities large and small, that depend on travel and tourism. We can safely restart our industry and take steps to ensure its financial viability through sectoral support, but the federal government must act now” concluded Mike McNaney, President and CEO of the National Airlines Council of Canada.

 

 

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