Question Period Note: COVID-19 AND SUPPORT FOR THE TOURISM SECTOR

What is the Government of Canada doing to support the tourism sector during the COVID-19 pandemic?

• The Government of Canada has been providing support to businesses and workers across the tourism, arts, and culture sectors.

• To date, businesses and non-profit organizations in these sectors have received an estimated $15.4 billion in support through federal emergency support programs.

• To assist the tourism sectors’ recovery, the government proposes to make available a package of supports, totalling $1 billion over three years, starting in 2021-22.

• Budget 2021 proposes to invest create a $500 million Tourism Relief Fund, administered by the regional development agencies to support investments by local tourism businesses to help them recover from the pandemic and position themselves for future growth.

SUPPLEMENTARY MESSAGES

• Budget 2021 aims to ensure that millions of jobs will continue to be protected and proposes measures to help hard-hit businesses recover and grow.

• Budget 2021 proposes to extend the wage subsidy, the rent subsidy, and Lockdown Support until September 25, 2021 and continue to support small businesses in rural communities, including those in the tourism sector, through the Regional Relief and Recovery Fund and the Indigenous Business Initiative.

• The government’s plan will support our economic recovery, restoring and creating jobs in these sectors, drawing visitors, when safe to do so, to towns and cities across the country, and unleashing spending that stimulates local economies.

• To assist the tourism sectors’ recovery, the government proposes to make available a package of supports, totalling $1 billion over three years, starting in 2021-22. This includes establishing a $500 million Tourism Relief Fund to support investments by local tourism businesses in adapting their products and services. The investment also includes $200 million to help support Canada’s major festivals and events, as well as $200 million to support local festivals and events.

• To ensure that Canada is a destination of choice when domestic and international travel is once again safe, the government also proposes to provide $100 million to Destination Canada for marketing campaigns to help Canadians and other visitors discover and explore the country.

• To help restore Canadians’ confidence in the safety of air travel and support the recovery of Canada’s hard-hit air and tourism sectors, the government is investing in COVID-19 sanitization and testing infrastructure at airports and the development of advanced technologies to facilitate touchless and secure air travel.

The government has introduced measures to support tourism businesses through the pandemic, including:

• The Highly Affected Sectors Credit Availability Program (HASCAP) offers guarantees on low-interest loans of between $25,000 and $1 million to help businesses heavily affected by COVID-19. Hard-hit businesses with multiple entities under related ownership, like a chain of hotels or restaurants, ownership could be eligible for up to $6.25 million. Qualifying businesses will benefit from repayment terms of up to 10 years, and may postpone principal payments for up to the first 12 months of the loan. The interest rate on these government backed loans is 4 per cent. Businesses can apply for HASCAP as of February 1, 2021 and until June 30, 2021.

• The government announced up to $306.8 million in funding to help small and medium-sized Indigenous businesses and support Aboriginal Financial Institutions that offer financing to these businesses. Funding provides access to short-term, interest-free loans and non-repayable contributions. In addition, Budget 2021 allocated $2.4 million in 2021-22 to the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada to help the Indigenous tourism industry rebuild and recover from the impacts of COVID-19.

• The Regional Relief and Recovery Fund (RRRF) helps businesses and organizations to continue paying their employees and supporting projects to prepare for a successful recovery. As of February, the RRRF has provided over $379 million to tourism businesses and not-for-profit organizations across Canada. The government will earmark a minimum of 25 per cent of all the RRRF’s resources to support local tourism businesses, representing $500 million in program support through June 2021.

• The tourism sector can also benefit from broad based measures, including the Canada Emergency Business Account, which provides $40,000 to small businesses and not-for-profits, and the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, which covers 75 per cent of employees’ wages.

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