ACTA Urges Agents To Complete Survey
ACTA is clearly pleased that its lobbying efforts, along with those of a number of other industry associations, are paying off; with the recent announcement that the federal government is extending the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy past June 6 – the original end date for the program.
The legislation allows for the government to extend the program to Sept. 30, 2020, but as pointed out in ACTA’s “ask” to government, the travel industry will experience a much longer lag in recovery and as such, will require the wage subsidy to be extended to the end of 2020.
More details on the extension are expected to be announced this week.
The Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance (CECRA) is expected to open this week, however to date, no changes to the program have been announced. In daily calls with the federal government, this issue ranks of critical concern.
ACTA, along with a number of other associations, has identified many cases where landlords are simply not interested in participating in the program, even with provincial eviction bans in place. The recommendation to the federal government is to make the program available directly to the tenant, rather than rely on the willingness of the landlord.
The association indicated that it will continue to lobby government on this point, as well as the fact that the travel industry will lag behind other industries in recovery and an extension of the program will be required.
ACTA is also asking all agency owners and managers to complete the survey that was sent to them last week and which asks them about what federal government financial relief programs they’ve applied for and whether they were approved.
The deadline to complete the survey is today (Tues. May 12 at 8:00 PM EST or Wed., May 13 for travel agencies in Quebec).’’
The survey is designed help ACTA’s lobby efforts by providing it with
information it needs to persuade the government that more help is needed.
Along with its daily calls with the federal government, ACTA has also had calls with senior officials from the Ministries of Transport and Small Business, and MPs working on special Committees connected to the Transport and Tourism departments.
Telling the travel industry story to key politicians and political advisors is essential to ensuring that travel agencies and travel agents are not overlooked, especially as airlines and tourism stakeholders are also seeking sector specific aid.
During these calls, ACTA has pointed out that some members have not been successful in accessing the current government financial aid programs.
The government is interested in this, but has asked ACTA to provide additional data and ACTA needs travel agency information to understand any shortfalls in the current government aid programs – and that’s what the urgent request to complete its survey is all about.
To complete the survey, go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/JC2FPSY
For more on ACTA, go to www.acta.ca .
