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This week, I joined my colleague Carol Greenwood in Chicago at the Great Lakes Economic Forum held by the Council of the Great Lakes Region. It was an opportunity to further entrench our relationships with our neighbours and share ideas about economic development and sustainability. We heard from Chicago Mayor, Lori Lightfoot, about the importance of tourism to the region and from business leaders about their perspectives on how to respond to our labour crisis and where the opportunities for growth through collaboration were emerging. The Great Lakes region is an economic powerhouse, contributing towards $6 trillion in GDP and supporting fifty million jobs in Canada and the United States. TIAO will continue to work with CGLR to ensure that the tourism industry in Ontario can benefit from shared economic development.  

However, whilst we were discussing further forms of collaboration and sharing best practice, devastating news was simultaneously released that the federal government intends to extend current border restrictions to September 30. Despite our G7 counterparts lifting their final health restrictions and obstacles to travel, the Canadian federal government has decided to go in a direction that will severely restrict our industry's ability to maximize the summer season and ultimately recover. 

Only last week TIAO joined our colleagues from NOTO and Destination Northern Ontario to highlight the critical situation in Northern Ontario and our border towns as we called on the government to axe remaining obstacles to travel. These obstacles have led to over a $100 million in cancellations in Northern Ontario alone and despite this month’s increase in U.S. residents taking trips into Canada through land ports, the number of trips remains at half (50.8%) of the U.S. residents who arrived by automobile during the same month in 2019. We just can’t go on like this. However, the fight continues and next week TIAO is holding a meeting with Conservative Federal Tourism Critic, Michelle Ferreri MP, to discuss the situation in Northern Ontario and call for greater scrutiny on border decision making. 

Last Friday we welcomed a new Minister to the newly renamed Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport in Minister Neil Lumsden. Since then, Sheref Sabawy was reappointed as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport and Laura Smith MPP has also been appointed as a Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister. Finally, we also have a new Deputy Minister in place as Nina Chiarelli takes over from Sarah Harrison. TIAO welcomes MPP Smith and Deputy Minister Chiarelli to their new roles and looks forward to working together for the benefit of the tourism industry. 

Tomorrow is Canada Day and the TIAO office will be closed and reopening on Monday. However you spend the long weekend, I hope you are able to enjoy it with loved ones. 

Chris Bloore
President & CEO              

Across the globe, international governments are lifting restrictions on unvaccinated travellers and removing final obstacles to travel.  

Yet in Canada, despite recent announcements on temporary changes to border procedures at our airports, there is no plan in place to allow unvaccinated travellers to visit Canada.  

In addition, the ArriveCAN application, originally implemented as part of an emergency order under the Quarantine Act for public health, continues to prove a barrier to travel.  

In a recent House of Commons Committee meeting, MPs heard of the damaging impact that COVID-19 has had on our border towns and tourism industry from TIAC President and CEO Beth Potter, but also, Mark Weber, national president of the Customs and Immigration Union, who said the app has CBSA officers acting as "IT consultants" for travellers and is “an incredible drain on resources. It's a drain on time.” 

But while European and other international governments are dropping mandates, remaining restrictions in Canada are severely restricting the industry's ability to recover. Despite this month’s increase in U.S. residents taking trips into Canada through land ports, the number of trips remains at half (50.8%) of the U.S. residents who arrived by automobile during the same month in 2019. This is simply untenable for the resource-based tourism industry in Northern Ontario, our border towns and is having a major impact on the number of tourists throughout Ontario.  

At the same time when inflation and gas prices are soaring, businesses across Ontario are facing a perfect storm of conditions that could see some businesses decide to close for the season. A recent report by Nature and Outdoor Tourism Ontario (NOTO) demonstrated that already this season, over $100 million has been lost in cancellations as American tourists cancel their plans to visit Ontario.  

As a member of the Northern Ontario Border Working Group, TIAO joined NOTO, Destination Northern Ontario and frontline operators joined for a press conference to call on the government to end the following remaining border requirements: 1. Random testing at land border crossings. 2. Vaccination of international tourists. 3. Use of ArriveCAN. 

The economic legacies of the pandemic, most notably debt, will continue to act as a millstone around the recovery of the tourism industry and TIAO will continue to work with TIAC to push for the writing off of debt incurred during the pandemic. But, the continued inability of our industry to compete on a level playing field with our international competitors continues to make it impossible for our industry to recover. It’s time for Canada to join other leading countries the G7 in adapting our response to the pandemic and remove vaccine mandates, random testing and the need to use ArriveCAN. 

You can watch the entire press conference, including remarks from NOTO’s Executive Director Laurie Marcil, David MacLachlan, Executive Director of Destination Northern Ontario, frontline operators and myself by clicking here or watch CTV’s coverage here.  

Chris Bloore
President & CEO              

This week, we saw an important step taken towards normalizing travel:

Earlier this week, the federal government announced it will drop the vaccine mandate for domestic and outbound travel, federally regulated transportation sectors, and federal government employees. As of June 20, vaccination will no longer be required to board a plane or train in Canada and employers in the federally regulated air, rail, and marine sectors will no longer be required to have mandatory vaccination policies in place for employees.  

As the pandemic has evolved and new tools have emerged to control the impact of COVID-19, TIAO has been advocating for government to remove barriers to travel. As such, we welcome this move and the opportunities it will provide the tourism industry and broader visitor economy: it will help increase provincial and inter-provincial travel, help address staffing challenges in federally regulated transportation sectors, and help streamline processes at our airports – resulting in a better customer experience.  

But while we are encouraged by the announcement, TIAO is still concerned about the unanswered questions of when unvaccinated travellers will be able to visit Canada and, crucially, when ArriveCAN will be eliminated or processes simplified and made more accessible for travellers. These are concerns we have been raising on TV and radio appearances this week, as we have been speaking to what the changes will mean for the tourism industry.

With cross-border land travel between the United States and Canada still at only 50.8% of normal travel volumes, border towns are bearing the brunt of the vaccine mandate for foreign nationals. Reliant on US clientele for upwards of 90% of their business, northern Ontario tourism operators are again seeing cancellations from US visitors due to the vaccine mandate - but also ArriveCAN requirements.  

The mandatory use of ArriveCAN is creating challenges for inbound foreign nationals, as well as Canadians returning from abroad. With ArriveCAN only allowing submissions up to 72 hours in advance of arriving in Canada, travellers on longer trips and without a smartphone are left with few options if they can't locate a business centre. As a result, seniors in particular have been impacted, with many deterred from travelling altogether. In other cases, it has meant added costs for businesses, with some tour operators resorting to purchasing printers to bring onboard the tour bus in order to print ArriveCAN receipts.   

And so, while this week’s announcement was an important step for the tourism industry, there is still more that needs to be done. We need to remove the vaccine mandate for all travellers in all directions; and if ArriveCAN isn’t to be eliminated entirely, we need to simplify the processes and remove the 72-hour window to submit the required information, making use of ArriveCAN easier and more accessible for more travellers. TIAO will continue working with federal counterparts to remove these remaining obstacles to travel – only then will the tourism industry and wider visitor economy truly be able to recover.  

Thank you for your continued support. And of course, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to send us an email at cbloore@tiaontario.ca and jng@tiaontario.ca.

Chris Bloore
President & CEO               

Jessica Ng
Director, Policy & Government Affairs

Over the past weeks, TIAO has been working hard to make tourism a key election issue.  

TIAO has been meeting with candidates of all political parties to talk about why Ontario needs tourism; the state of tourism recovery; the opportunities for jobs, community infrastructure, and economic growth if we get recovery right; and how each party can support the tourism industry as we move beyond the pandemic.  

To join us in these meetings, we’ve invited TIAO members in each candidate’s riding—including individual businesses, DMOs, and tourism officials—to provide a local perspective of the challenges and opportunities facing local tourism, from Kenora-Rainy River to Sudbury, Oxford County to Niagara Falls, Kitchener-Waterloo to Scarborough-Guildwood, and many more.

With over 20 meetings and counting and with just a week to go until the election, our job is far from over. We need to keep tourism on the agenda of all candidates vying for office. We encourage you to keep sending letters to your local candidates using our push politics tool on our mini-site, and we encourage you to keep sharing our key messages with the hashtag #OntarioNeedsTourism – see here for our election toolkit.

Thank you for your continued support. And of course, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to send me an email at jng@tiaontario.ca.

Dr. Jessica Ng
Director of Policy and Government Affairs

There are just two weeks until election day in Ontario and I want to thank every TIAO member and stakeholder that has accessed, shared or encouraged others to visit our non-partisan election website ontarioneedstouirsm.ca . In just two weeks we’ve had over 1,000 unique hits on our website, arranged over 30 meetings with election candidates and had over 140 media hits on the key issues affecting tourism, including twelve broadcast interviews. Every time you share ontarioneedstourism.ca or use the hashtag #OntarioNeedsTourism on social media it encourages more people to utilize our election toolkit and helps us ensure prospective MPP’s from all parties fully understand the challenges still faced by the tourism industry in Ontario. With two weeks to go, we’re arranging new meetings with candidates on a daily basis, so please to continue to share our resources and if you haven’t already sent your letter, why not do it this evening!  

Away from the provincial election, there was an important announcement from Randy Boissonnault, Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance, as he officially opened up a consultation on the renewal of Canada’s Federal Tourism Growth Strategy.  

TIAC President and CEO, Beth Potter, has confirmed that the consultation, which is now open until July 20, “will encompass two key initiatives:  i) by-invitation-only roundtables on each the themes of Destination Development, Sports Tourism, Rural Tourism, Culinary Tourism, Labour and Workforce, Community and Culture, and Indigenous Tourism, as well as a number of regional roundtables which will cover all these themes, and ii) written submissions.  We understand the intention is to conclude all the roundtables by end of June.”   

TIAO intends to put forward its own recommendations to the consultation and will be engaging you on what should be in our submission shortly. It’s vital that as we slowly exit the pandemic, this new updated strategy reflects a whole government approach to securing the future prosperity of the tourism industry in Canada.  In the meantime, if you have questions about the process, please don’t hesitate to contact us. You can visit the consultation website here to learn more. 

Finally, TIAO, recently met with Minister Boissonnault alongside our colleagues from the Culinary Tourism Alliance, George Brown College, Destination Toronto and Executive Chef and business owner Thompson Tran, to discuss the future advancement of culinary tourism in Ontario. It was an excellent discussion and it was exciting to hear the Minister’s passion for the future of culinary tourism in Ontario and Canada as a whole. 

Christopher Bloore,

President and CEO.

Like many of you, my mailbox has started to fill with election literature; local candidates have started to knock on doors and this week the NDP, following on from the Liberal Party, released their election platform. The Ontario Provincial election is almost officially upon us and today the Progressive Conservative government released its final budget of this parliament, one that will be delivered if they are successfully re-elected in June. A breakdown of some of the key budget announcements and details from the NDP platform can be found later in the newsletter. 

Next week, TIAO will be launching our own non-partisan election microsite OntarioNeedsTourism.ca, encouraging members of the industry and the public to engage local candidates in your riding on the important issues affecting the tourism industry. Our aim is simple; we want every re-elected or newly elected MPP to understand the challenges the industry faces in its recovery and gather support for TIAO’s recommendations to foster growth and opportunities - specifically, how we can support the return of tourism by working to remove all remaining barriers to travel, support the growth of tourism businesses by working to address regulatory burdens, remove red tape, and cut taxes, ensure the recovery and sustainability of tourism by working to address the industry-wide labour crisis and help rebuild tourism as a key economic driver by working to address the financial challenges of tourism businesses and supporting long-term industry investment. 

OntarioNeedsTourism.ca will be officially launched next week and will include our election toolkit and key messages and images that you can share alongside the hashtag #OntarioNeedsTourism. In an election that will be fought on many important issues, by working together to engage candidates, we can ensure that the tourism industry remains front and centre of any discussions about the future of our economy. 

Moving away from the election for the moment, TIAO was delighted to see the Federal Government announce its intention to restart federal economic immigration programs and extend international students’ expiring work permits while they are waiting for their permanent residence applications to be processed. Whilst we’re still awaiting some details, this is an important step by the Federal Government to recognize the labour crisis that many sectors are currently enduring and can be an important piece of the puzzle in meeting an expected summer of increased consumer demand and our long-term labour challenges. 

Earlier this week a tourism delegation led by TIAO’S Director of Policy and Government Affairs, Dr. Jessica Ng, held a roundtable event with key members of staff from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries on the Municipal Accommodation Tax (MAT). In a wide-ranging discussion about MAT, several key areas were discussed including challenges on collecting MAT and future funding arrangements. There has never been a more important time for us to be discussing the long-term economic future of the tourism industry, of which MAT will be a key component. For more information on the roundtable and future MAT discussions please contact Jess directly by emailing here.

Finally, please note that the next Building Inclusive Tourism Webinar is on May 11, entitled ‘Job Vacancies? Consider the Disability Talent Pool’. You can register for this complimentary webinar by clicking here. 

Christopher Bloore,
President & CEO