The Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC) today welcomed the federal government’s announcement to introduce new regulations that would temporarily expand the Local Lockdown Program to include employers subject to capacity-limiting restrictions of 50 per cent or more and reduce the current-month revenue decline threshold requirement to 25 per cent. TIAC also applauds the temporary expansion of the Canada Worker Lockdown Benefit to include workers in regions where provincial or territorial governments have introduced capacity-limiting restrictions of 50 per cent or more.

Today’s announcement is something TIAC has been advocating for. Many companies in the tourism industry and the hundreds of thousands of people they employ are directly impacted by COVID-related requirements that limit the return to full operating capacity.

When the pandemic struck, the tourism industry was the first hit, the hardest hit, and it will be the last to recover. Businesses in the industry and the many thousands of workers they employ are still at considerable risk without continued federal support, especially over the coming winter months until higher tourism levels are expected to return in the spring. Since the onset of the pandemic, the industry has effectively lost two full seasons as borders were closed and other travel restrictions and lock downs were in place. Businesses have faced crippling revenue losses, drained financial reserves and taken on substantial debt. Without continued financial support many companies simply will not survive long enough to make it to spring.