Message from President & CEO Ingrid Jarrett
Good Morning Accommodation Community.

There is a saying, “it takes a village”. This morning's announcement that the Liberal party intends to extend support to Canada's hardest hit businesses if re-elected is a perfect example of the impact we have when we all working together. This raises the bar for all parties to rise to which was exactly our intention.

I must acknowledge the unwavering resolve from Susie and her team at HAC; the support of all the provincial associations across the country, ourselves included; and you. A resounding amount of you responded to our request to engage with your MP, whether by letter, email, or a direct meeting. You used the toolkit provided to ensure we were collectively working together to educate and implore the Liberal government to support our sector, the hardest hit, until the spring of 2022.

These enormous efforts have paid off. This is a big win – and we won it together.

Thank you,

Ingrid
President & CEO
British Columbia Hotel Association
Dear Members,
We are delighted to share a huge win with you this morning.
 
This morning, Trudeau’s first announcement on the campaign trail was to announce Liberal support for the hotel, tourism and events sectors. Specifically, if re-elected, a Liberal government will:
  • Introduce a temporary wage subsidy and rent subsidy stream for sectors like hotels, tour operators, convention centers and festivals experiencing a minimum of 40% revenue loss.
  • Qualifying businesses in these sectors would be able to access a maximum subsidy rate of up to 75%, commensurate to their revenue loss, in order to help cover fixed costs like wages and rent.
  • The subsidy would be available between September 2021 until May 31, 2022.
You can read more on the Liberal plan here:
 
This is exactly aligned with the survival plan we asked for.
 
Today’s announcement by the Liberals signals they will not leave us behind, affirming the survival of our hotels and our employees.
 
This is a direct result of your advocacy work, and we could not have done this without the support of our members. From the meetings with MPs, emails, phone calls and letters, your work has been pivotal to our success. 
 
HAC worked tirelessly to draw attention to the difficult fall and winter that lies ahead for our sector. Under the banner of the Coalition of Hardest Hit Businesses, HAC created and proposed a dedicated support program to help bridge this gap and get us to the other side. After countless briefings with Government, including the Prime Minister’s Office, the offices of Ministers Freeland and Joly, Finance Canada, and the tourism branch at ISED, we are thrilled to see this come to fruition early on in the campaign.
 
Our work does not stop here, and we will continue to press all parties to do the same. We are already seeing early indications of support from both the Conservatives and the NDP. We will continue to share updates with you in the coming days.
 
Once again, THANK YOU for your support and for your trust in your association.
Sincerely,
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