The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - COVID-19’s Impact on the Tourism Sector

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprints. It's Canada's Conservative Podcast. I'm your host

00:00:08.160 Jamie Schmail, Member of Parliament for Halliburton Quarthalikes. Brock, thank you so much for joining

00:00:13.100 us. We have a great topic to discuss today. It's on tourism and the recovery because as we all know

00:00:18.900 it's probably an industry that hits every community right across Canada and probably you know someone

00:00:25.020 who has been affected by the catastrophic impact of COVID-19 in the tourism sector. So we're going

00:00:31.660 to bring in Tony Baldinelli. He's the Member of Parliament for Niagara Falls. He's also the

00:00:35.560 Special Advisor to the Leader Aaron O'Toole on COVID recovery and tourism recovery. So we're

00:00:41.140 going to have a quick chat with him about that but before we get there we need to remind you please

00:00:45.880 like, comment, subscribe, share this program. Also if you can't listen to the whole thing now you can

00:00:51.700 download it later on platforms like iTunes, CastBox, Google Play, you name it, it's out there and

00:00:57.800 together we can push back against the ever-moving liberal agenda and even provide an alternative

00:01:02.800 source of information that you might not be getting from the mainstream media. So we do need your help

00:01:08.740 with that. So in the meantime we'll get right into it. We'll welcome Tony, Tony Baldinelli. Thank you very

00:01:14.080 much for joining us and a special announcement. It is your birthday today. That's right. Not really to you

00:01:18.720 an announcement but to the public it is a special announcement. Well this is a gift done to itself

00:01:22.820 appearing on your show for the first time. So thanks Jamie. It's a pleasure being on the show.

00:01:27.720 I want to think that we coordinated your appearance on the show because of your birthday but we're just

00:01:32.620 not that organized. No that's right. Perfect coincidence. Perfect timing. Absolutely. Well for

00:01:39.180 those that don't know and I think most people do Niagara Falls is a very tourist heavy area that relies

00:01:46.800 on it to drive their economy and I think your area has been hit particularly hard. We can also talk

00:01:54.820 about the urban centers, the major cities who have been hit extremely hard as well, the ones that have

00:01:59.760 built up around their convention centers, the infrastructure that goes into that and seeing

00:02:03.960 that conferences, hotels, restaurants have gone down significantly because of the lack of travel.

00:02:10.480 Tell us what you're going through in your community, what you're hearing, what you're seeing

00:02:13.520 and the thoughts to go along with that. Well thank you Jamie and you're absolutely correct. Niagara Falls

00:02:19.960 is the number one tourism leisure destination in all of Canada and as our provincial minister likes to

00:02:28.200 say about the impact on tourism with COVID, you know tourism sector particularly places like Niagara we

00:02:34.060 were hit first, we were hit hardest and it's going to take our sector the longest to recover. In my home

00:02:40.900 community there's 40,000 people in this community of Niagara the regional area that owe their jobs and

00:02:47.080 livings to the tourism sector. We've got about 16,000 hotel rooms and we provide about 2.4 billion

00:02:54.820 dollars in in receipts alone and almost overnight when COVID hit in March that just ended and what was

00:03:03.340 really impactful was the fact that we were just coming off what would have been considered the best

00:03:09.820 tourism year ever in 2019. So what was happening was a number of these tourism operators were actually

00:03:21.700 taking out loans, they were expanding their hotels, they were building theaters and for all of that to

00:03:28.840 suddenly almost impact overnight what's happening in Niagara. It's been devastating in fact.

00:03:36.260 I think you're bang on in terms of travel industry and tourism industry having massive years in terms

00:03:44.000 of activity. A lot of that had to do with the fact that people had more disposable income but also the

00:03:49.500 fact that people were noticing that because of that the the market was responding, more flights were being

00:03:55.580 offered, prices were dropping, it became affordable for more and more people because of the good times

00:04:01.760 as you say and now we're basically hit to to next to zero. We did see decent movement I think within

00:04:09.400 provincial tourism but that still isn't enough because the international tourists are something

00:04:14.840 that I think every sector relies on and that could be whether it is your area, it could be a local

00:04:21.200 industry or charity that is holding a race or something like that or a fair. They use international

00:04:26.680 tourists to drive their numbers as well. No, you're absolutely correct. Here in Ontario, domestic

00:04:32.480 visitation, visitors from within this province and to a certain degree from outside of the rest of the

00:04:39.560 provinces are our number one visitor base but it's those international visitors. It's those visitors from

00:04:45.900 the United States who probably cross about 13 million into the province of Ontario alone. They're the

00:04:52.840 ones that spend extra amounts of money. They stay a little longer. They'll stay at the restaurants. They

00:04:58.360 spend a significant amount of money more than a domestic visitor would per se so it's really missing

00:05:05.320 those those visitations which ended immediately with the travel bans and I live in a community that has four

00:05:12.400 international border crossings so the borders with the United States were closed immediately and so we've seen

00:05:18.360 the impact of losing those visitors almost immediately as well.

00:05:23.320 So there are a number of industries that are doing fairly well with the grocery business, the some building

00:05:28.580 sectors, hardware stores. I think everyone can point to some area within their community that is doing

00:05:34.700 very well. However, it's been said that Canadian tourism has now gone into survival mode and that can include

00:05:41.440 hotels, restaurants, bars, nightclubs, you name it. COVID has pretty much destroyed a lot, pretty much all of their

00:05:51.020 business or their ability to open. So what are you thinking, what are you hearing in terms of how do we go

00:05:56.980 into the recovery mode so we don't eviscerate all of these businesses, most of them small businesses that are

00:06:04.340 built on the backs of just everyday people finding an idea, creating a dream of their own and moving with it.

00:06:12.620 No, you're absolutely right, Jamie. I mean, the impact of tourism on its own, just in Canada, I mean, almost one in

00:06:20.000 10 workers works in the tourism sector. You know, you're looking about 1.8, almost closer to 2 million people

00:06:26.880 had worked in the tourism sector. And again, immediately with COVID, that was impacted and that changed almost

00:06:32.140 overnight. I mean, the government has created several programs and several, I mean, to be fair, some of

00:06:39.160 these programs are beneficial, but what they've done is they've taken overarching approach, a kind of a

00:06:45.360 one-size-fits-all approach to their programs and assistance that misses the mark with so many of

00:06:53.160 these small businesses that are out there. For example, I mean, the hotel sector, it probably employs about

00:06:59.160 300,000 people, workers in Canada alone. I mean, the business credit availability program that the

00:07:05.600 government touted as one of those programs or instruments for that sector, while almost 60% of

00:07:11.060 hotels can't qualify for that, the banks right now see them as too high risk. So they're looking for

00:07:17.640 a lifeline right now. You've got to remember, these hotel operators throughout the country, they were coming

00:07:23.960 off some of their best years. So these hotel owners were reinvesting back. They're heavily leveraged.

00:07:31.800 They've spent their reserves. Usually they'll build up a base during the summer months and use those

00:07:38.340 reserves to take them through that slow winter period to get them into the next year. Well, those reserves

00:07:44.600 have been spent already to get them through the summer months. And so they're feeling that if things

00:07:52.320 don't change, that we could lose several hotels throughout the country, and that would be a shame.

00:08:00.700 Again, I mean, we're talking a lot of them are small-time business operators, family-run operations.

00:08:07.160 So it's critical that we come forward with a plan, a recovery plan. And that's why, you know,

00:08:12.120 our party's been talking since March. We need a sector-specific tourism recovery plan. And we have yet

00:08:18.320 to see that from this government. And that's disappointing, to say the least.

00:08:23.360 For those just joining me, I'm speaking with Tony Baldinelli. He's the Member of Parliament for

00:08:27.340 Niagara Falls. He's also the Special Advisor to the Leader, Aaron O'Toole, on tourism recovery.

00:08:33.300 He has a lot of experience based on this in his previous career in the business. So, Tony,

00:08:39.620 I just want to point out this one stat, and I know you know this, but it's pretty impactful when

00:08:44.820 you hear about it. As of June 2020, according to the Travel Industry Association of Canada,

00:08:50.880 cancellations and losses for the business events sector is an estimated loss of $925 million.

00:08:59.800 That's a 79% drop from 2019. We talk about an industry that's been hit hard. We mentioned

00:09:08.100 tourism being in a survival mode in Canada, and probably right across the world as well.

00:09:13.340 These, and you mentioned the numbers of the job. This impacts pretty much everyone. This is why

00:09:20.500 we need to have that sector-specific funding. But also, I think we can even talk about how rapid

00:09:26.740 testing, if Health Canada would finally approve something, could help the tourism industry recover.

00:09:33.160 You're absolutely correct. I mean, as we slowly start moving forward towards a recovery and that path

00:09:39.480 forward, rapid testing offers us an ability to get moving and get the borders open and get travel

00:09:47.200 happening again as quickly as possible. So, that's part of the solution. And as you mentioned, this

00:09:52.240 government has been slow to act. I mean, they've always been a day late. We've been advocating, again,

00:09:57.040 go back several months for rapid testing. Why was it that Air Canada had to implement a pilot project at Pearson

00:10:04.220 Airport on rapid testing on its own? It had to ask almost Health Canada begrudgingly to participate.

00:10:11.760 And lo and behold, what is it? Several months later, the federal government decides to do its

00:10:15.820 own pilot in Calgary. Well, again, a little too little too late. I mean, at Pearson, they've already

00:10:21.140 done about 30,000 tests. They've got some data. So, why don't we build on that? Let's go forward.

00:10:27.260 We need a path forward. And this government, unfortunately, hasn't been able to deliver.

00:10:32.580 Now, on a local note, how was it this past summer? I know Niagara Falls tried to open a bit.

00:10:37.300 I know there was some interprovincial travel all across the country, whether you're in the Atlantic,

00:10:42.140 in the West, it doesn't matter. There was some kind of movement to incentivize people to travel around

00:10:50.360 their own province and get to know it a bit better. How did you see your area? And what have you heard

00:10:55.780 from other parts of the country as they tried to attempt anything they could to grasp on those

00:11:01.720 dollars that are very scarce at this point? Well, to your point, I mean, Niagara became a kind of a

00:11:09.260 favorite destination for weekend visits. So, people would try to get out of the larger urban communities

00:11:15.140 and come down to Niagara. So, you would see increased numbers, but in no way would replace those numbers

00:11:21.480 that had been previously. A colleague of mine, a former colleague of mine shared a statistic. He was

00:11:28.480 moderating a call with the hotel sector down in Niagara. And I think, if I remember the statistics

00:11:35.880 correctly, he said in 2019, the hotel accommodation sector in Niagara generated about $500 million.

00:11:42.140 And up to October of this year, they had generated $151 million. So, you've lost about $400 million

00:11:51.740 in that one year because of COVID. So, that sector has taken that impact on that itself. So, I mean,

00:11:59.300 and take that to the other aspects for the restaurants, for the attraction settings, you know,

00:12:05.780 for the parks. And so, I mean, it has that spillover effect on everyone else's. So, it's been quite an

00:12:13.160 impact. Now, I'm sure it's frustrating to the people you are speaking with all across the country that

00:12:18.600 are involved in tourism, especially when, as you mentioned just a few moments ago, there are groups,

00:12:25.720 there are organizations, there are businesses that are trying to work outside what the government is

00:12:31.220 doing in terms of Health Canada and their slow approach to approving rapid tests, many of which

00:12:36.120 are approved in the United States and in the European Union, which many would say is the gold

00:12:40.400 standard. So, that's got to have some frustration when, as you mentioned at the beginning of the

00:12:44.400 program, those that have invested in new hotels, new restaurants, new theaters, ready to open this

00:12:50.340 summer, basically had that shut. And meanwhile, as we go through this whole process, we're noticing

00:12:55.840 there might be a path forward, rapid testing, other methods, you name it, the tourist industry,

00:13:01.220 has a whole slew of ideas. There must be some growing frustration within the business community

00:13:07.120 and the restaurant community as a whole as they start to wonder what it's going to be like this

00:13:12.060 winter. Well, you're getting that now, Jamie. I mean, especially as we hit the second wave,

00:13:17.880 the growing frustration here in our community is palatable. I mean, for example, our two casinos

00:13:25.960 alone in Niagara employ 4,000 people, Jamie, and they have not, those employees haven't been to work

00:13:32.720 since March. I mean, it's great to have these programs that the government has developed for,

00:13:37.920 you know, those tourism workers, the Canada Recovery Benefit. But, I mean, all well, but, I mean,

00:13:43.480 these people want to go back to work. I mean, it doesn't make sense to operate a casino with only 50

00:13:48.820 people. But if you have rapid testing and as their path forward becomes better and more certainty is

00:13:56.780 developed, I mean, vigilance always has to be the key as we deal with COVID. But what's that path

00:14:02.580 forward? How are we going to get to that stage where we can operate and run that casino, where we

00:14:08.180 can get people back to work? Those 4,000 people want to get back to work. Rapid testing is a means to do

00:14:14.740 that. And again, we've been slow off the mark. Now, we don't know how the rest of it is going to

00:14:23.000 unfold in terms of how quick Canada is going to be able to distribute the vaccine, how it's going to

00:14:29.800 happen. I think the Prime Minister earlier today did mention that Canada is not at the front of the line

00:14:35.380 in terms of getting their allotment of vaccines, which causes a bit of nervousness, I think, within

00:14:41.800 any industry. And so we're still not sure how it's going to unfold. We don't know how much longer this

00:14:47.780 is going to go on for. We are learning about the deep impacts, but it's not all doom and gloom. I

00:14:53.100 think there are many provinces have talked about the response, which we've done. We're talking about

00:14:58.240 the recovery and how we live with it, the resilience of it all, and how we hopefully are able to save these

00:15:05.500 businesses and these jobs that go with it, the wealth, the opportunity in our communities. And so

00:15:12.280 there is a path forward. We just need to see some action by this government.

00:15:16.540 You're absolutely correct. And what we're starting to see is some of those actions provincially as

00:15:21.200 well. I know in the recent Ontario budget, the government came out with a tax credit program to

00:15:27.060 assist and promote staycations throughout the province. So that will help benefit, as well as

00:15:34.160 programs that will assist those small businesses. What we've done, I mean, is we've continued to

00:15:39.920 advocate for those programs that needed to be changed federally. For example, that rent subsidy

00:15:45.720 program. I mean, Jamie, like you, like, I mean, we wasted 12 weeks. We could have had that program

00:15:53.840 in place this summer, but this government decided to probe parliament and then waited six weeks to

00:15:59.520 implement the legislation. It's in the Senate, it's been passed, but then they realized they've also

00:16:04.080 made a mistake in this legislation. So there's 12 weeks wasted. We could have had this money in the

00:16:10.420 hands of those small businesses starting in September when their rents were due. Now we're

00:16:17.720 going to have to go back and say, now those people who can just apply as of Monday, the program starts

00:16:23.940 as of September. Well, I mean, that, I mean, those people still had bills to pay. And this government

00:16:29.200 was again, a day short. Tony, before I let you go back to your birthday celebrations here, you don't

00:16:35.500 look a day over 35. Any parting words? No, I'd like to thank you for this opportunity, Jamie. And

00:16:41.580 again, talk about the importance of this tourism sector. People don't realize, I mean, there's 338

00:16:47.340 members of parliament. I think tourism touches us all. And it's an important sector in our economy. And

00:16:53.300 what we need is a path forward. And I look forward to hearing from this government. We've been

00:16:58.600 advocating since March, again, for this recovery plan. Perhaps we'll hear something in this economic

00:17:03.220 statement. But if early indications are anything, I'm not certain, but maybe buy a budget in the

00:17:10.880 springtime. Well, we're hoping for a budget at some point. At some point. That would be nice this

00:17:15.380 year. That's right. Hopefully not much time left. Thank you very much, Tony Baldinelli, the member of

00:17:19.840 Parliament for Niagara Falls. He's also the special advisor to the leader, Aaron O'Toole, on tourism

00:17:25.180 recovery. We appreciate his time. We wish him a happy birthday. And we know that he'll be watching

00:17:31.020 and listening next Tuesday because that's when we have new content. Every Tuesday, 1.30 p.m. Eastern

00:17:36.900 time. Great information. Great stuff. We're hoping to pass along to you. And that's where we need your

00:17:42.940 help. Please like, comment, subscribe, share this program. If you can't watch it all now on platforms like

00:17:49.560 Facebook, you can download it later. For CastBox, iTunes, Google Play, you name it, it's out there.

00:17:55.760 Together, we can push back against the ever-moving liberal agenda. Please join us again, as I mentioned,

00:18:00.800 next Tuesday, 1.30 p.m. Eastern time with brand new content. In the meantime, thank you so much for

00:18:06.660 joining us. And remember, as always, low taxes, less government, more freedom. That's the blueprints.

The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - November 25, 2020

COVID-19’s Impact on the Tourism Sector

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