C-19 BULLETIN - May 12, 2021

Province Responds to
TIABC/BCHA Letter on Restart

As referenced in Monday's C-19 Bulletin, TIABC and the BCHA wrote to Premier Horgan last month with a request to collaborate on creating a restart plan for the tourism industry.

View letter here

Yesterday, TIABC and BCHA received a letter from the Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture & Sport, Hon. Melanie Mark responding to our recommendations.

"Despite the progression of our vaccination plan, transmission rates remain too high to confirm a restart plan at this time, and our immediate focus must continue to be on efforts to reduce cases and outbreaks. As Dr. Henry emphasized, the best thing we can do as an industry is to keep working together to reduce the risk of transmission until vaccination rates increase. 

We are anticipating that we will be developing a safe restart plan towards the end of May, and over the next several weeks, will have further engagement and dialogue with industry to inform this work. Specifically, our aim is to use the Tourism Advisory Table as a forum for discussion on restart planning." 

View Minister Mark response letter here

TIABC, BCHA and various industry partners continue to communicate with government vis-a-vis working together on various components of the restart plan to provide industry with some degree of certainty around the lifting of travel restrictions, particularly the benchmarks the Province is working toward to allow travel to and within BC in the weeks ahead.
_________________________________________________________________
TIABC Writes to Prime Minister and Minister Joly Seeking Restart Plan for Tourism

Last week, TIABC wrote to both Prime Minister Trudeau and Honourable Melanie Joly, Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages (responsible for tourism) regarding a restart plan for the tourism & hospitality industry, and to request further support measures to address liquidity. 

The letter states...As more countries, provinces, states and cities around the world open or prepare to re-open to non essential travel, TIABC believes Canada must identify criteria that would allow for travel restrictions to be lifted in order to restart the visitor economy. To that end, we respectfully request answers to specific industry questions that would be helpful for planning and to work toward a full re-opening in future:

1. What benchmarks does Canada need to achieve to allow international leisure travel to resume? 

2. When does the Federal Government anticipate lifting border restrictions? 

3. How can Canada implement a digital proof of vaccination card or something similar to allow fully immunized people to visit our country for non-essential purposes? 

4. If the international border cannot be opened to all countries this year, is the federal government willing to accept visitors from certain countries where all citizens have been fully vaccinated? 

5. How can Canada (& by extension each province & territory) use rapid testing as a means to allow people to travel more freely and/or reduce the quarantine period for  
international visitors, as well as for residents returning from abroad? 

TIABC noted that the tourism and hospitality industry is keen to work with the federal government (along with the Province of BC) on a re-opening plan to ensure we fully understand the parameters that government puts in place, and to be part of the solution to current obstacles. 

View letter here
_________________________________________________________________
Excerpt from Dr. Henry's Briefing Yesterday on
What Factors Influence Reducing Restrictions

Reporter: Saskatchewan's reopening plan is very much based on vaccinations. You mentioned that ours would include things other than vaccination. Can you explain what that is? Do you believe that having a reopening plan like this will provide an impetus for people to go get vaccinated or something for people to look for specifically around when they can do certain things like go to an event or a library with higher capacity. Do you think it would provide some additional support for people towards that goal?

Dr. Henry: We want to look at where has been most impacted, and we look at food, restaurants, tourism and those sectors, but we also look at where things have worked really well. Here in BC, we've kept most retailers open, especially small retailers, we've been able to keep many businesses functioning safely with COVID safety plans, so a lot of our work will be focused on those sectors where there needs to be specific things and then we'll be looking at the seven day rolling average of cases. The information we present regularly on the BCCDC website -- we'll be looking at hospitalizations, people in ICU. We'll be looking at the morbidity and mortality, how many people are in hospital?
_________________________________________________________________
State of Emergency Extended
to Continue BC’s COVID-19 Response

The Province of British Columbia has formally extended the provincial state of emergency, allowing health and emergency management officials to continue to use extraordinary powers under the Emergency Program Act (EPA) to support the Province's COVID-19 pandemic response.

The state of emergency is extended through the end of the day on May 25, 2021, to allow staff to take the necessary actions to keep British Columbians safe and manage immediate concerns and COVID-19 outbreaks.

Learn more here
_________________________________________________________________
BC Introduces Paid Sick Leave Program

The Province has introduced a paid sick leave program that will allow workers to stay home when they are sick during the pandemic and afterward, including permanent paid sick leave, as a result of legislation tabled yesterday.

Amendments to the Employment Standards Act will bring in three days of paid sick leave related to COVID-19, such as having symptoms, self-isolating and waiting for a test result. Employers will be required to pay workers their full wages and the Province will reimburse employers without an existing sick leave program up to $200 per day for each worker to cover costs.  

The legislation will also create a permanent paid sick leave for workers who cannot work due to any illness or injury beginning January 1st, 2022. The number of paid sick days and other supports will be determined following consultations with the business community, labour organizations, Indigenous partners and other stakeholders.

To support this leave, WorkSafeBC will set up and, beginning next month, administer the employer reimbursement program on behalf of the Province. This will include reimbursing employers up to $200 per day per worker. For the small percentage of employers that have a highly paid workforce but do not already have paid sick leave, those employers will be required to cover any remaining wages owed above $200 for each COVID-19 sick day taken.

Learn more here
_________________________________________________________________
Frontline Hotel Workers in Fraser Health & Vancouver Coastal Regions
Now Eligible to Receive Vaccine

Vancouver Coastal Health and Fraser Health have prioritized vaccines for frontline workers including hotel and hospitality workers, food service workers (restaurants, bars, pubs, food delivery, food courts, etc.), BC Ferries frontline staff, and transit staff (Translink, BC Transit, taxis Uber, Lyft), among others.

Please note, the link for the Fraser Health booking site that we were provided in Monday's C-19 Bulletin was incorrect.
To register and book your first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, visit the frontline workers provincial vaccination website

This link is for frontline workers only. Do not use the BC provincial public link to access registration. If you have already booked an appointment using the BC public link and wish to register now using your frontline worker's code, you will need to cancel your existing appointment before rebooking as a Frontline worker

To learn more about Fraser Health's priority frontline workers, visit:

To learn more about Vancouver Coastal Health's COVID-19 vaccine for frontline workers, visit: http://www.vch.ca/covid-19/covid-19-vaccine/covid-19-vaccine-for-frontline-and-essential-workers
_________________________________________________________________
Tell Us Your Story

From the Brookside Campsite in Cache Creek:

I am sure you're well aware of the public health notices to avoid travel. Our business is almost out of business. A large percentage of our guests are from Europe and the United states. Those people have not been able to travel to Canada since last year. What kept us going was BC residents last year. This year they were scared away from us. There is a government sign over the freeway in Kamloops that reads " NO RECREATIONAL TRAVEL" it doesn't say, 'stay out of the lower mainland', it says "no recreational travel". In the last 5 days we have had one guest, who paid $36.00 for a one night stay. $36.00 dollars is not enough to live on.  We are continually told to apply for relief money. It took the government 4 months to get us 30k from last April which we only qualified for after we proved we lost 70% of our business in a month!! and 30% monthly after that. This year is unsustainable. We're choosing what bills to pay let alone being able to hire employees back. Our own government is ruining us with signs and messages that read "No recreational travel". We own a recreational park and the BC guests were the last thing keeping us afloat. We were the biggest proponents of proper health procedures and were self regulating early on last year, we built an $8,000 dollar contactless check in booth and never undermined the seriousness of this pandemic and the necessity for proper safety measures. My wife and I have both been vaccinated. The government then implements further restricted measures in the second year when we barely made it through the first. The tighter restrictive measures ought to have been in the first year.  When we're losing hundreds of thousands of dollars, needed for mortgage, and taxes and fixed bills, then a $30k grant doesn't cut it. We need more subsidies for our greater losses in the second year and we need it asap or there won't be a tourism industry once this all clears.

The health officers mixed messages of regional areas and only essential travel have completely stopped travel in BC, which was the only thing that was keeping us going after we lost our international guests. The proof is in our last week's income statement where this campground earned $36 dollars. Our mortgage alone is $8,000 a month. Simple math says bc tourism isn't sustainable. Restaurants can at least still do takeout, how do you do takeout for a campsite or hotel room? When our government says "no recreational travel" it means it's serving our industry with its eviction notice. 

We need help. Serious subsidies asap. Not money next year to make up for this year. If the provincial restrictions are on today, then the subsidies need to come today. 
_________________________________________________________________


Moments of Levity

As an industry that continues to face enormous challenges during COVID-19, every once in a while it's important to share a laugh, a good story, a beautiful image, or an interesting anecdote to provide moments of levity during this most difficult time. Feel free to share your photos, etc. with TIABC to be published in our C-19 Bulletin each week.
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
Thursday, May 27th 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm (PDT)

The Tourism Industry Association of Canada’s (TIAC) 2021 Tourism Town Hall will be in British Columbia on May 27th, in collaboration with TIABC.

Local small and medium businesses owners will have the opportunity to meet with TIAC, Destination Canada and tourism partners to better understand efforts being made on national tourism issues.  

The Town Hall will allow tourism operators to provide first-hand input on issues affecting their business and the tourism industry in this time of COVID and provide feedback on government policy for the recovery and the rebuilding of our sector.

The Town Halls also provide a front-line forum exposure for governments, TIAC, Destination Canada and event sponsors to collaborate with small and medium-sized tourism business operators.

For more information, and to register (free), please visit the event page.
_________________________________________________________________
Feel free to send us your ideas on what information would be valuable for TIABC to share through our COVID-19 Bulletin going forward. Drop us a line at info@tiabc.ca.