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Monique Gomel
View Monique Gomel Profile
Monique Gomel
2021-06-22 12:06
Hello, and thank you for inviting me to speak to the committee today.
My name is Monique Gomel, and I am the interim chair of Destination Canada’s board of directors. I am joined by Marsha Walden, president and CEO of Destination Canada.
I would like to acknowledge that I am joining you from Vancouver, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples: the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam nations.
I was appointed interim chair in March of this year. However, I've been vice‑chair of the board of directors since 2017. I'm also a senior vice president at Rocky Mountaineer, where I oversee global marketing, communications, data and insights, and sales operations.
Today I would like to give you a brief overview of my role as interim chair, the state of the tourism sector in Canada and Destination Canada's near- and longer-term plans.
First, as interim chair of the board, I work collaboratively with a team of eight directors with tourism experience from small business owners to renowned entrepreneurs to former executives from multinational corporations.
The government has appointed some of Canada's best and brightest tourism business leaders to help provide strategic advice to the executive team and the president and CEO of Destination Canada. Directors are actively involved in long-term strategic planning, prioritization of objectives, financial oversight and risk management. The board assures itself that appropriate systems of governance, leadership and stewardship are in place while empowering the executive team to manage the organization.
Before I provide an overview of the state of the sector as a whole, I would like to share my perspective as an operator. In my role as senior vice president of Rocky Mountaineer, a Canadian luxury rail company, I'm seeing firsthand the devastation of the COVID‑19 pandemic on our business. We weren't able to operate in 2020, and we've delayed the start of our 2021 season.
The impact of the pandemic on tourism is greater than that experienced after 9/11, SARS and the 2008 crisis combined. Women, youth, immigrants and indigenous workers, who make up the engine of the visitor economy, have been the hardest hit by the impact of COVID-19 due to reduced operations, business closures and job losses.
We are forecasting that the sector [Technical difficulty—Editor] until 2024.
At this point in my presentation, I would like to acknowledge that the speed and scale of the government's response to the pandemic has never before been seen in times of peace.
The government has provided over $15 billion in federal government investments to support tourism in the past year. This includes important programs like the Canada emergency wage subsidy program and the highly affected sectors credit availability program. There was also robust support for Canada's tourism sector in budget 2021, which, I will note, still needs to pass the House and Senate, including an additional $100 million to Destination Canada for marketing.
While government subsidy programs are helpful for survival, recovery can only happen when revenues return.
The good news is that, although the sector is struggling now, we're seeing strong signals of future demand. Our latest research shows upward trends in feelings of safety about travel and a greater willingness of communities to welcome visitors.
With these signs of hope, Destination Canada is focusing its strategy to help revive market revenue in the near term and support a thriving and resilient industry that delivers net benefits to communities in the long term.
A key part of our plan to revive revenue is a multiphased domestic campaign that reflects the evolution of health restrictions. Recent research from Destination Canada finds that, if Canadians shift two-thirds of their typical spending on international travel towards domestic tourism this year, it will make up for the estimated $19-billion shortfall in international visitation. It will also support 150,000 jobs and help accelerate recovery by a full year. Simply put, we need Canadians to keep their holiday dollars in Canada this year to speed up our sector's recovery.
In its early stages, our campaign aims to increase Canadians' understanding of the importance of travel to their communities, inspire confidence and a desire to travel domestically, and finally to reignite the welcoming spirit of Canadians from coast to coast.
While our industry is first and foremost concerned with protecting the health of our employees and guests, we are eager to welcome travellers again. When the time is right, we will start introducing more aggressive calls to action and encourage Canadians to book their travel. We are also key in our international markets, ensuring that Canada stays top of mind for business and leisure travel alike when it is safe to do so. The efforts are now intensifying.
In order to help our industry ready itself to reopen and compete in a ferocious marketplace, we are hearing three main areas of concern.
They are seeking clarity around reopening milestones—
Monique Gomel
View Monique Gomel Profile
Monique Gomel
2021-06-22 12:11
Thank you.
They are seeking clarity around reopening milestones, consistency in protocols between levels of government and between countries, and the need for governments to move with urgency to save the 2021 season. No business can survive two summers without revenue.
As you will appreciate, much of Destination Canada's strength is found in the relationship it has with its partners, including provincial and territorial counterparts, the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada and the private sector partners.
As the interim chair of the board of directors of Destination Canada, I am confident our work will elevate Canada's competitiveness as a tourism destination, enabling Canadian culture to thrive and place-based regenerative economies to emerge.
Thank you very much.
View Tony Baldinelli Profile
CPC (ON)
I look forward to seeing that list submitted and those names put forward. I truly believe that if Niagara is not represented on that board, then we're doing a disservice, not only to the tourism industry in Canada but to those 40,000 hard-working people in my tourism destination.
Quickly, I want to shift to the domestic tourism funding that you had alluded to. According to the Tourism Industry Association of Canada, prior to COVID, we were a $105-billion sector, responsible for 1.8 million workers—one in 10 Canadians. That almost immediately ceased.
Can you explain how Destination Canada has been working to shift its marketing focus to our domestic travel market to try to begin the tourism recovery that's needed?
Monique Gomel
View Monique Gomel Profile
Monique Gomel
2021-06-22 12:16
Certainly. You're absolutely right. We've pivoted to a mostly domestic plan, given the current times. We're very sensitive to the health restrictions and have aligned our activities with those restrictions as they unfold. The first step for us has really been to communicate the importance of tourism for communities across Canada and to increase that understanding of the visitor economy among Canadians.
Second, we've begun to do more work towards inspiring confidence in travel as restrictions open up, by communicating all of the safety measures that our operators have taken across the country.
Third, we are working to reignite that welcoming spirit for visitors among Canadians. The second stage, as restrictions start to open up, will be to be more aggressive in terms of offers that we put out there for Canadians to increase conversion and to really get them to book trips across the country.
Fourth, we are still keeping a presence in international markets to ensure that we remain top of mind during this time, and that our brand remains strong among those international guests when the time is right for them to travel back.
View Tony Baldinelli Profile
CPC (ON)
Okay. Thank you.
Again, I'm just following up on a line of questioning one of my colleagues was asking. It's that whole notion about the consultation by the federal government and the information that you're able to provide them. I was wondering if you have spoken to the government about any reopening plans from a tourism perspective with the data that you're providing.
Are they seeking any of your input with regard to that?
Marsha Walden
View Marsha Walden Profile
Marsha Walden
2021-06-22 12:38
We certainly have an ongoing conversation with our ministry on the conditions and state of the industry, on what our industry is asking for, and some of the advocacy bodies like the Tourism Industry Association of Canada are very vocal on these issues and have ongoing conversations with ISED. We provide all of the research that is provided to our industry online and take our ministry through that. I think in the past year we've produced 250 reports on different aspects, on everything from Canadian sentiments about travel and whether or not they're willing to travel and whether or not they're willing to host visitors, to the ongoing economic conditions of various parts of our sector.
We've also shared perspectives from our industry on those areas that Monique spoke about earlier around the need for clarity on what the milestones will be as our market reopens and on consistency in how we apply protocols, whether it's at the border or at individual airports, provincially and internationally. Finally, we've shared our perspective on the need for urgency, because summer is upon us and it would be very difficult if our industry is unable to have revenue driven through this summer.
View Brian Masse Profile
NDP (ON)
View Brian Masse Profile
2021-06-22 12:49
Chair, I'd like to continue with the challenges with the government's decision recently. It's not even based on science. Apparently, the Pfizer vaccine is going to have a different response in a Canadian versus an American. It's left border communities extremely vulnerable, waiting around month after month to find out what's going to happen next.
Has there been any discussion about how there would be some involvement or amelioration by your organization for, I guess, many destinations? My friend from Niagara Falls will feel this. They're basically going to be frozen out of any interprovincial tourism for the most part. Some of it will happen, but some significant American visitation won't be there. Decisions are being made to isolate some tourist destination areas at their expense.
Has there been any discussion about what to do once we finally get some reopening, and will there be some extra consideration to those that are basically sacrificed this year because of a lack of foresight?
Monique Gomel
View Monique Gomel Profile
Monique Gomel
2021-06-22 12:51
As I mentioned, we do take a team Canada approach. We work very closely with the provinces and territories in terms of aligning [Technical difficulty—Editor] something that would be considered.
View Ali Ehsassi Profile
Lib. (ON)
View Ali Ehsassi Profile
2021-06-22 12:57
Allow me to start off by thanking the two witnesses.
I found your testimony to be incredibly helpful. You have focused on some of the short-term challenges that need to be addressed to ensure that hopefully this season we will see a surge in tourism.
For the longer term, what are some of the indicators that you think members of Parliament should remain focused on to ensure that we see a sustainable recovery for your sector?
I will go to Ms. Gomel first.
Monique Gomel
View Monique Gomel Profile
Monique Gomel
2021-06-22 12:57
Certainly we'll be monitoring things as they come. There's still a lot of uncertainty. I would say that we have made some shifts in our corporate strategy looking forward in terms of the types of travellers we will be targeting and our approach to marketing, so certainly we are reacting to the change in the climate.
Again, we will be looking at arrivals numbers from different countries, looking at all of the measures that we did before and adjusting where we allocate dollars in terms of our marketing to different countries. We are going to be kind of watching and adapting. We've become quite agile.
If the chair will allow, I'll ask Ms. Walden to elaborate on that one.
Marsha Walden
View Marsha Walden Profile
Marsha Walden
2021-06-22 12:59
Thank you. Maybe just at the very highest level I'll say that we really see our role in helping our industry contribute to the quality of life of communities right across this country, while we're enriching the lives of our visitors [Technical difficulty—Editor] people and places of our land.
We have four pillars that will not only help us address short-term opportunities but also position us in the long term. First of all is ensuring that we have the social licence of Canadians to welcome visitors back into communities. Second is that we are doing things to increase the vitality of our industry over time. Part of that is focusing on a higher-value traveller who will increase their spending in Canada and help us sustain well-paid jobs in the country.
Third is that we focus on brand resonance to make sure that what Canada can offer as an experience remains competitive internationally and that we have budgets that support our ability to compete on a marketing level in the short term. Finally, the fourth pillar of our strategy is really around creating legendary experiences. We have many in this country already and we want to continue to have the work of our economic development agencies invested in those experiences to ensure that we can compete [Technical difficulty—Editor] because having the right product is what will make us competitive over the longer haul.
We have a role to play now in helping strategize around that to create demand-informed strategies and to work with regional development agencies to ensure that we are positioning our industry well for the future.
View Tony Baldinelli Profile
CPC (ON)
Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to our witnesses for being with us today.
The motion I shared with committee members last meeting proposes that our committee invite Monique Gomel to testify for no more than one hour. She is the newly appointed interim chairperson of the Canadian Tourism Commission, also known as Destination Canada. Last year the committee had the opportunity to call forward to testify Marsha Walden, the newly appointed president and CEO. Given the importance of our tourism sector and the devastating impact COVID-19 has had on this vitally important sector to our economy, I think it's important that we also have an opportunity to speak with Ms. Gomel.
As you know, budget 2021 commits $100 million to Destination Canada for marketing funds. As we go forward towards a recovery, it's crucially important to examine Destination Canada's role in the use of those funds and the assistance it can provide in the recovery that's critically needed for a sector that prior to COVID was worth $105 billion. We're looking at 1.8 million workers and 2% of Canada's GDP, and in my community alone, 40,000 workers and 16,000 hotel rooms. My community is the number one leisure destination for tourism in all of Canada, and we have about 2.4 billion dollars' worth of receipts.
It's crucially important, I believe, that we have an opportunity to speak with Destination Canada and Ms. Gomel in her new role, and I look forward to meeting with her. Of course as part of that, I propose we do this before June 23 and the recess.
View Sherry Romanado Profile
Lib. (QC)
Do I have the consent of the committee to adopt the motion?
Thank you.
(Motion agreed to)
View Marco Mendicino Profile
Lib. (ON)
Madam Chair, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s supplementary estimates (A) include only a re‑profiled amount of $24.5M for interim lodging services.
Madam Chair, I want to assure you that Canada will continue to do its part in leading way in world refugee resettlement. We've held that number one spot for the last three years. Throughout the past year, settlement providers have shown incredible resilience and ingenuity in working with my department and retooling their operations so they can continue to help those fleeing war and persecution. Indeed, as my colleague and friend Filippo Grandi often said, Canada was “a bright light in a horrible year”.
Before I conclude, I want to take a moment to emphasize the incredible role played by newcomers in helping Canada to get through the pandemic. In our health care system, over one in three doctors, pharmacists and nurses aides is an immigrant, but it's more than just that. From asylum seekers working on the front lines of long-term care homes to temporary foreign workers saving Nova Scotia's lobster season, we owe newcomers so much. We're doing more than expressing our thanks. With a variety of initiatives, which I've highlighted, we're demonstrating it.
Madam Chair, it goes without saying that the past year has been a tempest for many people. Yet with the arrival of vaccines, the storm is breaking, and there is indeed hope on the horizon. I'm proud of how well we've adapted and innovated over the past year, and I look forward to doing more on immigration, as it will play a vital role in Canada's economic recovery and long-term prosperity.
I look forward to taking your questions and continuing to work with all members of this committee, indeed all parliamentarians, as we achieve that vision.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
View Sukh Dhaliwal Profile
Lib. (BC)
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I would like first of all to commend my friend Minister Mendicino for his leadership and the hard work- he and his staff have done during this pandemic. I also would like to echo the comments by my friend Jasraj Singh Hallan, on the other side, that you've been very accessible to this committee.
Minister, we all agreed that immigrants create jobs, help to drive economic growth and will, of course, play an important part in Canada's recovery in the coming months.
The pandemic has disproportionately affected low-wage workers, women, young people and racialized communities. Could you please tell me some of the highlights of the investments you are going to make to make sure that when we have this economic recovery, it is inclusive of all Canadians?
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