Today, the Ministers of Finance and Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade provided new details about the Canada Recovery Hiring Program and announced an extension of the Highly Affected Sectors Credit Availability Program (HASCAP) to December 31, 2021.

With the extension of HASCAP, originally set to expire on June 30, 2021, the Ministers reiterated that this will ensure that businesses like hotels have the liquidity support they need to invest in their recovery.

The Hiring Program, announced in Budget 2021, is intended to help businesses that continue to experience a decline in revenue by covering some of the increased costs of hiring as they reopen and ramp up for the Summer. The program will provide a subsidy of up to 50 per cent of eligible salary or wages and it will be available retroactively to June 6, 2021.

Key details include:

More information on the program, including eligibility is available here.

The Circuit Breaker Grant Program is providing grants of $2,000 to $20,000 to hospitality, fitness and accommodation businesses impacted by the March 31st PHO orders on gatherings and events and liquor and food serving premises, and the April 23rd EPA order on travel.

Grants are available until June 4, 2021 or until funds are fully expended, whichever comes first.

Further information on the Circuit Breaker Grant Program can be found here.

The Major Anchor Attractions Program provides one-time emergency funding to major anchor attractions and tour bus companies that service tourism attractions to help them operate at minimal levels until domestic travel resumes and it's safe to gather indoors in small groups. The program is available to businesses and not-for-profits.

To be eligible, an organization must meet the basic requirements and qualify as one of three eligibility streams. The 3 eligibility streams are:

Applications are due by June 7th at 1 pm.

Further information on the Major Anchors Attractions Program can be found here.

Join us Thursday June 3rd as TIABC welcomes our guests from Rogers Sports & Media. This webinar will take you through a Canadian broadcast overview – the facts and myths on media consumption - and show you where to find Canadian travellers.

15 minutes of Q&A at end of session

Webinar Outline:

Presenters:

Brad Kubota - VP Local and Regional Sales Canada – Rogers Sports and Media. Based in Vancouver, Brad has over 30 years of national, regional and local sales experience. He represents a wide range of sports and media assets and tools including TV, radio, digital, out of home and research.

Peter Kambo – Senior Manager Media Insights. Peter’s extensive Vancouver agency experience provides clients with best in class media strategy, planning and buying expertise. While agency side his long list of clients included GM, Bell, BCLC, BC Honda and Destination BC.

Dan Lessons – Western Canada Digital and Out of Home Sales Manager. Dan began his advertising career in publishing in London.  Now based in Vancouver and with Rogers for 10 years, he designs and oversees national, regional and local digital strategies for all levels of marketing needs.

This webinar is sponsored by our partners

at Fortis BC.

The Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, together with the members of the Canadian Travel and Tourism Roundtable (“The Roundtable”), TIABC and our sector partners, is urging the federal government, in collaboration with the provinces, to release an implementation plan based on the recommendations made in the COVID-19 Testing and Screening Expert Advisory Panel (Expert Panel) report.

The federal government convened the Expert Panel to provide independent, science- and data-driven recommendations to the federal government on testing, border restrictions and quarantine measures. The report, released on May 28th, recommends eliminating quarantine for fully vaccinated travellers, implementing changes to testing and screening, and eliminating the hotel quarantine policy, among other things.

Check here for more detailed information.

On June 1st, TIABC Board Chair, Vivek Sharma spoke to Radio NL News in Kamloops about the Province's recently launched $50-million program aimed to help larger tourism businesses, as well as industry needs vis-a-vis relief and recovery.

Listen to the full interview here

According to the latest statistics from the Faster Together initiative, the number of Canadians willing to be vaccinated is on the rise, and the number of people hesitant or refusing to take a Covid-19 vaccine is at a new low.

Abacus has been providing data on vaccine opinions to a volunteer Task Group of organizations and individuals under the banner "Faster Together", reminding people that choosing to be vaccinated can bring us all back together again, more quickly.

The latest nation-wide data collected show that the number of people who've already had a shot or who will take one as soon as it is available to them now stands at 79%, up from 63% only a month ago.

A total of just 21% show some measure of hesitancy, most of whom indicate they can be persuaded to be vaccinated. Just 7% say they will never take a COVID19 shot.

Click here for additional data and list of members of the Faster Together coalition that include TIABC.

Earlier today, Liz Vickery of the Ministry of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation delivered an informative webinar to TIABC eager to better understand the process and criteria for available business grants.

Liz is the Executive Director leading the implementation of the Small and Medium Sized Business Recovery and Circuit Breaker Business Relief grants programs.

A copy of the recorded webinar can be found here.

TIABC is pleased to update on the re-opening of the Sea to Sky Gondola to the public on June 11th. The final milestone in the reopening process was the delivery of 25 cabins from the CWA factory in Switzerland. In addition, a new cable was delivered from Fatzer in Switzerland earlier this year.

As part of the reopening, the operation has implemented extensive updates to their security system, including a professional in-house security team; 24-hour surveillance of all infrastructure and refined their detection and response capabilities in partnership with the RCMP.

Like last summer, guests can expect to ride in gondola cabins with their ‘bubble’ group only, masks will be mandatory in public spaces, and food and beverage offerings will comply with current public health orders.

Please check here for updates as they approach their reopening.

Join the outdoor Recreation Council of BC on June 5th for #BCTrailsDay. This past year, trails and green spaces have been more essential to us than ever before and you are encouraged to return the favour.

Give back to BC's trails by celebrating BC Trails Day. Join a covid-safe event in your community, or venture out in your region on your own for a hike, ride or paddle to show your appreciation.

Visit here for further details.

Southern Resident Killer Whales are endangered. They struggle to find enough food to eat and are vulnerable to contaminants. Noise pollution and disruption from boats interfere with their hunt for prey. The Southern Resident Killer Whale Outreach and Education Program is asking residents and visitors to take the actions below to protect killer whales when fishing, boating or paddling around the South Coast of BC:

For more information on the best ways to help whales while on the water, please visit here.

TIABC is pleased to welcome our newest member; Foxtrail.

Foxtrail is an experience for families, companies and groups of friends of all ages. Participants use their printed instructions and explore a place in a playful way by solving riddles, showing their ability at mechanical games and cracking secret codes.

Foxtrail was born in 2001. Despite a journalist falling into Lake Thun at the media presentation of the first Foxtrail, excitement started to build shortly afterwards. Foxtrail is a leisure activity based in Vancouver and helps to re-discover the city in an interactive and enjoyable way.

For more information about Foxtrail please visit here.

TIABC recognizes that many of our members have been supporting our organization's advocacy efforts for a very long time. In this new feature, we will be showcasing those businesses, associations, and DMOs that been TIABC members for more than 10 years.

Island Lake Lodge is a special place deeply rooted in the local history of the Elk Valley and home to 800-year old Cedar, Spruce & Douglas Fir Trees. Located just outside the Mount Fernie Provincial Park, this back-country tourist resort covers 7,000 acres (28 km2) of mountainous terrain. They have 3 lodges with 8 luxury suites.

The resort will be open from June 18th - September 19th for summer 2021

Click here to learn more about this long standing member.

Learn more at:

Self-Guided Webinars 

Developing Winter / Shoulder Season Tourism Toolkit

Made up of six learning modules, this webinar will give you actionable advice on how to define your strategy, develop products and experiences, build collaborative partnerships and more to boost seasonal tourism in your business or region.

Winter / Shoulder Season Consumer Demand Research Report

Get access to free tools and strategies to grow your business and tourism in your region at the ECE content hub: https://ecehub.tiac-aitc.ca/en/