AMPPE recognizes that COVID-19 will have significant consequences for our economy and that the road to recovery will be complicated. In the months to follow we must look to government to provide support to secure the viability of our sector. We have collated a preliminary list of priorities that government should focus on within the Mountain Parks. Our robust advocacy efforts focus on reducing and deferring costs for vendors/businesses, options for extending leases and licenses renewals for vendors, exploring strategic reinvestments and leveraging accelerated infrastructure spending to enhance guest experience.
These priorities are currently being actively shared with government as they contemplate ways to support the tourism sector. In the past few weeks AMPPE has leveraged governmental relationships with officials at Parks Canada, the office for Canada’s Minister of Environment & Climate Change, the office for Canada’s Minister of Economic Development, and the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade & Tourism with the Government of Alberta.
Our message has been simple; government needs to look out for businesses and formulate a collaborative path to recovery. Early actions from government are encouraging and certainly consistent with AMPPE’s core messages. A few examples of government responding to our needs includes Parks Canada deferring payments on commercial licenses and licenses of occupation until September and the Government of Alberta deferring the tourism levy for hotels and lodging providers until August 31, 2020.
We have continued our work with Global Public Affairs on our government engagement efforts. For the benefit of our members, they have prepared a comprehensive list of provincial and federal employee supports that have been announced thus far. You can find that list
here. They have also prepared a comprehensive list of provincial and federal employer supports that have been announced thus far. You can find that list
here.
While these are certainly encouraging initial steps from government, there is much more that needs to be done. We have started some significant momentum with key decision makers and would welcome your input and participation in the months to follow.