ACTA: 2021 Advocacy Priorities

News / ACTA: 2021 Advocacy Priorities

ACTA shares plans for 2021

January 18 - 2021 Advocacy Priorities:

• Since March 2020, ACTA has been actively advocating on behalf of travel agencies, travel agents, host organizations and independent travel agents

• ACTA lobbied the federal and provincial governments as well as regulators and suppliers for critical financial support needed to survive the crisis of COVID-19

• ACTA has a government relations firm that assists with their lobbying efforts, arranging key meetings, shaping communications and advising on strategy

• ACTA met with Members of Parliament within the federal government, the opposition, and senior policy directors and advisors – those that are directly involved in drafting legislation

• ACTA encouraged member and industry support for several of its government outreach initiatives that included grass roots letter writing campaigns, virtual meetings and telephone calls

• ACTA hired a communications consultant to ensure weekly communications to members and the industry about ACTA’s advocacy work, keeping the industry informed of the issues, programs and how they could get involved

• ACTA leveraged their relationships and aligned with like-minded organizations including working on key issues with the Canadian Travel and Tourism Roundtable (with their focus on promoting a responsible reboot of the travel and tourism industries) and the Hardest Hit Coalition (with the focus on securing critical financial aid to the greater travel, tourism and hospitality industries)

• During 2020, ACTA’s voice contributed to changes to financial aid programs including:
• Multiple extensions to programs
• A wage subsidy program that went from 10% initially to 75%
• A rent program that initially was only eligible to landlords to one that tenants could access at 65% or more for businesses mandated closed
• An “employment insurance type” benefit that was accessible to self-employed workers such as Independent Travel Agents
• A loan program that was increased-- including a forgivable portion
• Accessibility to sector specific loans within the travel and tourism industries that have not been easy to obtain
• The waiver of regulator fees and changes to regulations that saw a reduction to financial burdens in some provinces

2021: Much more work to do

The start of 2021 began with some disappointing news from the federal government – pre-boarding testing

• This decision, announced on New Year’s Eve, was not made in consultation with the industry and was made in haste

• The extremely tight deadline to ensure that airlines have processes in place and for travel agents to ensure their clients already in transit are able to meet the new requirements was unrealistic

• This new requirement is yet another blow to travel agents who are seeing existing and future bookings get cancelled

• ACTA is urging the government to work with the industry on a sustainable solution with the goal to reduce the 14-day quarantine in a safe and measured way, such as one of the various airport pilot projects already underway for testing on arrival in Canada

ACTA’s 2021 immediate priorities:

As we start the new year, and as we quickly discovered in 2020, lobbying priorities continue to evolve as the pandemic continues to unfold and government actions and policies change.

ACTA will focus on:

• Extension of the Canada Recovery Benefit for Independent Travel Agents to, at minimum, the end of June

• Commission recall – funding to cover travel agent’s recall of commission must be included in any airline or tour operator aid package

• Pre-boarding testing that also still includes 14 -day quarantines

ACTA will also focus on lobbying that is critical to protect the infrastructure of the Canadian Travel Industry, including supporting host organizations:

• Liquidity assistance - Accessibility to the new HASCAP loan program that still has not launched

• Extension of the 75% wage subsidy to minimum June 30, 2021 with limited conditions that recognize the needs of the hardest hit industries, including travel agencies

• The inclusion of the 25% top-up benefit in the rent subsidy program as travel businesses have essentially been shuttered since March 2020

• ACTA is working directly with senior government directors and policy advisors on these critical issues and will get travel agencies, travel agents and independent travel agents involved again in 2021 to support ACTA’s campaigns

• ATA messaging and their actions are critical now, and in the weeks and months ahead… and members and the industry will be called on to assist in ACTA’s campaigns

• ACTA appreciates all the work being done by travel agents, independent travel agents and travel agency owners (individuals and groups) across the country to keep the needs of the industry front and centre

• ACTA cannot do any of this work without members. ACTA urges EVERYONE to please consider joining ACTA to support their efforts on behalf of everyone