12-Month Lobbying Summary - In-house Organization

Subject Matters

• Aboriginal Affairs
• Arts and Culture
• Consumer Issues
• Employment and Training
• Environment
• Fisheries
• Immigration
• Industry
• Infrastructure
• International Relations
• Labour
• Small Business
• Sports
• Taxation and Finance
• Tourism
• Transportation

Subject Matter Details

Grant, Contribution or Other Financial Benefit, Policies or Program

• Building a Regenerative and Inclusive Tourism Industry – TIAC works with government to support a tourism sector that is more resilient, sustainable, and equitable through priority investment in regenerative tourism and specialized recruitment programs for equity seeking groups.
• Developing and Promoting World-class Tourism Assets – Ensuring Canada maintains and promotes the development of world-class tourism assets requires considerable investment from both public and private sources. TIAC advocates for continued investment, particularly in respect to under-serviced communities, and effective promotion of existing assets as well as the development of new, more competitive ones for both Canadian and world travellers to discover and experience. TIAC’s efforts on this front include monitoring and raising policy issues that directly affect Indigenous tourism development with a goal of empowering Indigenous communities in generating their own economies while also providing Canadians and foreign visitors alike the opportunity to connect with Indigenous peoples and to experience their unique and diverse culture in a deeply meaningful way.
• Promoting Business Sustainability and Industry Competitiveness – TIAC promotes optimal forms of government intervention that support the competitiveness of Canada’s tourism companies via public grants, tax credits, repayable financing contributions and policies and programs that augment entrepreneurship, innovation and commercial protections. During this critical period as the sector looks to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, TIAC is working to ensure that government loans provided through the CEBA, RRRF, HASCAP and related initiatives have an optimal impact through guidelines and repayment conditions that are conducive to business growth.

Policies or Program

• Attracting and Retaining a Sustainable Tourism Workforce – TIAC supports the creation and optimization of policy and programs aimed at addressing the significant labour shortages that now exist in the tourism sector due to the affects of restrictive public health measures, border closures, and increased operational costs that were related to the COVID-19 pandemic. TIAC also advocates for a healthy tourism workforce via regulations and policies in regard to immigration, including issues related to pathways to permanent-residency and the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

Policies or Program, Regulation

• Improving Access for Visitors to and within Canada – TIAC supports the efficient movement of travellers to and within Canada through enhancements to the visitor visa process in order to meet international demand for travel to Canada. TIAC also works to ensure that regulations and policies related to transportation, air travel, waterways and ports of entry are developed and implemented to optimally connect, and not impede, domestic and international travellers to urban and rural destinations, key attractions, sporting events, and business meetings in Canada.

• Subject matter details in previous versions

  Grant, Contribution or Other Financial Benefit, Policies or Program

  • A Tax Incentive Program as it pertains to inbound leisure travel to Canada. This program provides GST relief to volume leisure tour groups and meetings and conventions being held in Canada.
  • Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic - Seeking changes on EI reform and other policy and support measures during the pandemic. Ensuring access to financial impact measures for its members. Expansion of the RRRF funding program for tourism businesses. Monitoring developments and assessing impacts on members. Advocating for the implementation of a Canadian Travel Incentive Program to encourage domestic travel recovery.
  • Federal Tourism Strategy – supports government initiatives toward industry growth
  • TIAC is seeking a well-funded and balanced national tourism marketing agency and will continue to work with the government to ensure that Canada's marketing efforts in mature and emerging markets are adequately funded, including co-investments with industry, and that campaigns are aligned with industry priorities.

  Policies or Program

  • Employment/Immigration – TIAC advocates for a permanent-residency path as a part of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, and an industry focused Municipal Nominee Program
  • Immigration - Modernizing Canada's visitor visa process in order to meet international demand for travel to Canada. These initiatives include reinvestment of visa processing fees into increased capacity, expanding transfer without visa, augmenting the Visa Application Centre ("VAC") network into new priority source markets and utilizing electronic travel authority as an alternative visa stream for lower-risk countries
  • Transportation – TIAC advocates for the reduction and elimination of fees related to air travel including airport rents and CATSA fees paid for by travellers

  Policies or Program, Regulation

  • Regulations and policies in regards to marine mammals and waterways
  • Regulations and policies in regards to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program

  Regulation

  • TIAC will work to improve Canada's competitiveness of Canada's aviation sector and the important role it serves in economic development and job creation. TIAC supports efforts to expand the number and scope of Canada's air liberalization agreements however Canada's ability to attract international business and leisure travellers is impeded, in part, by the layers of taxes, fees and levies imposed on the traveling public. TIAC is working to reform Canada's aviation cost structure.