Excerpts from News Conference with Premier Horgan & Minister Mark Introducing Support for Tourism Businesses & Related Tourism Issues
Premier Horgan: While we still need to bear down against the pandemic, all signs are pointing to positive days ahead this coming summer. We have challenges to be sure, but we need to focus for the next number of days on following rules, making sure we are not travelling unnecessarily, and hoping for a better future coming after the May long weekend.
Reporter: Premier, on the tourism issue would want to know what you may or may not personally be doing about the cruise ship legislation that has past so far in the United States. Are you meeting with the Alaskan delegation, are you doing anything personally with the prime minister or others in that file?
Premier Horgan: I will say that the notion of technical stops at BC ports, if that will assist the industry to be maintained, we're happy to talk about that, but before there's a cruise ship going up and down the west coast of North America, the US CDC has to approve that, the federal government will have something to say about that as well. From my perspective as the head of a subnational government that has a long coast that welcomes the world and welcomes tour ships by the many, many hundreds, with literally hundreds of thousands of passengers, we want to see them come back, we want to see them come back strongly, but it's not going to come back in the next number of weeks and at this point it's not going to happen until next season.
But with vaccinations going as well as they are, with case counts and hospitalizations going down here in BC, at any event, we're feeling confident. But it's not just about BC, it's about North America, it's about the world, and we have to gauge with our federal partners what's happening elsewhere before we open the doors to people from somewhere else.
Reporter: I'm just wondering to what extent is the province actually consulting with tourism operators and the tourism industry on the restart plan, because, again, many of them are asking to be included and asking for that roadmap so that they can plan for the summer. What level of involvement do they have on the reopening?
Minister Mark: We struck a tourism advisory table. Dr Bonnie Henry's attended four of the four meetings to hear firsthand about what the concerns are so that, of course, the PHO's alive to the issues, the government's alive to the issues, and the solutions and calls for action. Right now we're striking working groups, that's the plan going forward to drill down, because not all of the sectors are the same, they're not all equally impacted by the pandemic, but the tourism advisory table is giving us that advice. We're working closely with them in tandem...cabinet, senior officials ...are all working around-the-clock so that we've good news to come shortly. But they are on the table because we need them to tell us what they need for the immediate and medium and then long term as we move through this pandemic.
Reporter: What about the restaurants in terms of indoor dining? Will they be able to reopen after the May long weekend? Are they going to be given a heads up so they can get the necessary supply and hire back staff if needed? What's the plan for indoor dining?
Premier Horgan: Those plans will be laid out next week, but be assured we are in discussion with the hospitality sector, have been for a long, long time, and we will give as much notice as we can. I want people to understand, though, we are not out of this yet. The circuit breaker remains in place until next week and people need to adhere to that. We are so close and we need to just keep going for a little bit longer.
Reporter: Premier, the hospitality sector has been desperate for a restart plan. You kind of talked a bit about it earlier, but Dr Henry hasn't ruled out getting the current restrictions past May 25th so what do you say to hotel operators specifically wondering if the peak summer season might be a write off for them if non-essential travel among the regions remains in place beyond this long weekend?
Premier Horgan: Yeah, I certainly understand the challenges, but I also know that the vast majority of BCers support keeping our borders closed. They support non-essential travel being restricted until such time as we see the impact on our hospitals, for example. Our frontline workers, our health care workers, have been stressed to the max over the last 15 months and we do not want to see a spike in cases that will lead to an increase of hospitalizations.
That's why Dr. Henry has put in place, I believe, a thoughtful plan and she has talked to the sector repeatedly about what the challenges are and what are the metrics that we'll be looking for and we'll be laying that out in more detail next week, and the industry knows that.
Reporter: Full mobility here in the province, and even in Canada, will still see hotel operators, attractions...all of these locations whether big cities or rural, probably worse in rural areas, not bringing in the money they had two years ago. Will there be more money available if they're seeing the same kind of hard hit summer, even if it's a bit better than last summer? Will there be more money available for these businesses, these tourism based businesses?
Premier Horgan: Again, I put a lot of emphasis on our vaccine program and immunization not just in Canada and North America, but indeed around the world. We are not going to be leaving COVID behind on July1st. It will be with us for the foreseeable future. What will change is how we manage that risk and those risks are better managed by having a fully immunized community that can welcome others from around the world who are in a similar position. There are a lot of hoops to go through yet, a lot of discussions with the federal government, and international partners for that matter, and I'm optimistic we're going to have a much better summer this year than we did last year, but I don't want anyone to be under the illusion that we're going to flip a switch or snap our fingers and all of a sudden we're back to where we were at. That's not going to happen.
But we're in a good place and we have committed from the beginning of this pandemic that the province would be there for people, for businesses and for communities as long as we have to, but I don't want to predict the day we announce a $50m grant program, where the gaps are going to be two weeks from now. When they make themselves clear, we'll deal with them at that time. What I do know is that we consulted widely on this program, we took direction and advice from the sector and put this in place and it's going to be well received. Will we be done now? I don't believe so, but this is a good start.
Reporter: I'm wondering if you can give a ballpark figure on how many anchor attractions are eligible for this or would be sharing the funds?
Minister Mark: My numbers suggest there could be up to 40 for the rural, in Vancouver and more urban areas maybe 30. With all due respect, this new terrain for a government to be handing our grants to a sector and part of that call to action is because we're in the middle of this global pandemic, but examples could be the Museum of Anthropology, Butchart Gardens, Capilano Suspension Bridge, PNE, Science World, wildlife places, attractions that have, as the Premier mentioned, that kind of landmark quality.
Those tour operators are also going to be essential to mobilize and move folks between destinations, which is why we've included them, because they're the lifeline to get visitors to these attraction sites. The reason we've opened the window to June 7th is because we know we need to get the money out the door, which is why we want people to apply as soon as possible, assess what their needs are and get the cheques out the door so we have these destinations of choice and those anchors available post-pandemic and for years to come.
Reporter: I wanted to confirm that the $50m is not new money, it's money that was announced back in the budget last month. I also wanted to get your reaction to concerns from tourism folks who say we really need a plan because wholesalers are trying to figure out the year 2022 plans and the tourism industry doesn't have a plan they can pass on yet. What's your reaction to that?
Premier Horgan: I can tell you that I was on a website yesterday looking to see how easy it was to get a flight anywhere and every time I put in Vancouver to anywhere, they said 'cannot sell.' This is not about BC, this is about the world. We're in a global pandemic, we are in a better place than many because of the hard work of British Columbians to get to a place where we have more travel, we can have more economic activity. The other bit of good news is that the pent up desire of British Columbians to go and see their friends, to go to places they always meant to go to but the past year they've been barred from going to, I believe, means come this summer there is going to be a lot of people moving around, seeing things they've never seen before, spending those discretionary dollars they do have in their pocket to stimulate and boost activity right across BC, and I'm excited about that.
I know you weren't suggesting in your question, but to suggest that BC is isolated in this case is just not true. The challenge we have is that the world is gripped by this; on the nightly news we've seen different jurisdictions having different reopening strategies, all of them tied to vaccinations. I know in the UK -- my eldest son lives in London, England and the freedoms he has to move around have been severely restricted for a long period of time, but he and his spouse are going travelling next week, they're really excited about it, and it's because of the vaccination program in the UK. As we continue with our vaccination program here, unprecedented in its success, in my opinion, we'll be in a better position to not just plan for 2022, but I think get a good kickstart on 2021.
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