Economic and tourism support update

good afternoon thank you for joining us today for an update on economic and tourism support in response to the covid19 pandemic we are joined today by deputy premier and minister of economic development range play and minister of tourism and culture jeannie mclean our sign language interpretation is being provided by mary thiessen following our speakers we will go to the media for a round of questions i will call you by name you will each have one question and one follow-up before we begin i would like to note that the legislative assembly is currently in session minister play and minister maclean may be required to vote in the assembly which means we may need to either pause or conclude the press conference i want to thank you in advance for your patience and understanding lastly if any of the reporters are having a problem hearing us please email ecoinfo gov dot yk dot ca minister play great thank you dr cameron and again for those um following along with us today uh apologies if we are interrupted uh my colleague and i will go and uh and uh take on a responsibility and get our vote in and hopefully be able to come back and uh continue with any questions you may have so um folks good afternoon and i would like to acknowledge that we're on the traditional territory of the qualifying done first nation and the ta'an council it has been a year of unprecedented challenges for our territory we've all experienced disruptions whether it be social or economic this pandemic has taken its toll about one in five yukon businesses laid off staff approximately 18 percent of businesses canceled or delayed their planning hiring due to the pandemic and the accommodation and food services sector reported that 63 percent of their workforce was laid off i'm mindful of the fact that our jurisdiction has fared better than most however and we remain fortunate to have maintained a low covet 19 case count this is largely thanks to you connors who continued doing their part by following public health advice and contributing to this effort the vaccine rollout continues at a brisk pace with this being the second week of the general clinic here in whitehorse and our mobile teams traveling to the communities to provide the second shot widespread immunization is the best way of course to protect ourselves and i'm pleased to see you stepping up the government of uconn responded to this pandemic by rapidly deploying economic supports to stabilize our economy and maintain the health and safety of all uconners we coordinated support with the government of canada and continue to work closely with the canadian northern economic development agency to ensure businesses have flexible supports today we have allocated more than 44.8 million dollars across government to support uconners this funding has enabled us to provide more than 40 individual initiatives to support uconners and their businesses this includes direct programs and initiatives indirect supports regulatory supports and infrastructure supports it included the rapid deployment of programs and initiatives in early days of the pandemic such as first the quick formation of the business advisory council to ensure the needs of yukon's business community were heard the tourism accommodation sector supplement the elevate business mentoring program the yukon business relief program and the temporary support for events funding program we also have been monitoring the economy and adjusting our programming as needed to provide uconn's business and community with additional support we recently announced a number of covet 19 economic program extensions we renewed the yukon business relief program and the paid sick leave rebate and extended both until both programs until september 30th renewing these two key programs means that if you already use the program in maxed out you will be able to reapply as of april 1st we also announced the extension of a number of supports through our 15 million dollar three-year tourism relief and recovery plan i'm very happy to be here today with mr mclean and we'll we'll touch in a second a bit about the approach on tourism but those supports included the extension of the four million dollar tourism accommodation and non-accommodation sector supplements to september 30th 2021 a 450 000 contribution to uconn's elevate program which provides yukon tourism businesses mentorship training funding for implementing recovery which i know was highly successful and and also um a program that uh i think was oversubscribed and i know tourism i think stepped up to make sure which is great and a 300 000 enhancement to the tourism cooperative marketing fund bringing the total to a million dollars for yukon restaurants and other businesses with a liquor license eligible businesses most in need will continue to receive a 25 discount on purchases so again a reduction in price for the vendors but again really so they could have a better sense of their bottom line and really trying to support hospitality we also announced a new regional relief loan program for businesses which covers costs that help businesses to stabilize and adapt sorry to interrupt you minister play the bells are going off which means a vote is required in the yukon legislative assembly i apologize but we'll have to take a very brief break uh so the ministers can participate in their democratic duties please stand by welcome back thank you for your patience uh the vote has now uh concluded and our speakers are back uh minister play thank you dr cameron thank you um you know as as we've had to deal with the uh the economy and support the economy we have been uh you know how to monitor and adapt and respond like today so again uh just getting into some of our supports so uh again just looking back at the at the last year again uh we just announced a new regional um relief loan program for businesses which covers costs that help businesses stabilize and adapt each business with this program can receive up to a hundred thousand dollars in loans including the other loan programs offered by the government of canada these loans are interest free through to december 31st 2022 with principal payments deferred until then if the applicant repays 75 off the principal amount off the loan by december 31 2022 the balance equal to 25 percent of the loan will be forgiven and applications are being accepted until march 31st uh 2021. um we also have made deliberate and thoughtful efforts to respond to the unique challenges faced by all sectors of our economy and today i'm pleased to announce details of uconn's economic resilience plan our plan is our plan to return yukon's economy back to pre-pandemic levels and chart a path forward when we launched our response programs we promised that we would monitor adapt and respond and this plan reflects that commitment in details our initial pandemic response the economic situation and how our response aligns with the government's priorities and programs our plan identified five key pillars where we will focus our efforts to ensure uconn's economy rebounds with the responsiveness and adaptability that all uconners remain and that all uconners remain safe and healthy so the key pillars we are focusing on with our plan is people jobs business supports infrastructure development and economic diversification we recognize that we must meet a range of needs and we are making deliberate and thoughtful efforts to respond to the unique challenges faced by different sectors by focusing on these five pillars we will support yukon's economic adaptation and growth the first area is people we recognize that families must be able to meet their critical needs in order to participate in the workforce that is why we will be focusing our efforts on universal affordable child care a health care system with an integrated collaborative and person-centered approach and greater access to affordable housing ensuring that uconner's needs are addressed will improve health and wellness outcomes and position uconners to be active participants in building economic resilience and we will continue to put people first and i couldn't be more excited uh myself and mr clean with our colleagues announcing that i i you know for folks um when you talk about economic impact um an individual family folks who have two two children that are in daycare as of that period this spring having you know up to fourteen hundred dollars um off income that you could now use to support um your family um to maybe um look at um home purchases all these amazing um opportunities that come with that so again it's it's a it's such a foundational piece next is jobs building upon our foundation of people jobs is our next focus jobs will help support the well-being of families and communities here in uconn in order for uconners to benefit they need the right skills and access to good jobs programs are being adapted to help workers develop fundamental skills disease new opportunities we are helping employers find and retain personnel and helping to connect job seekers with employers programs such as the staffing up building up and working up programs are being adopted and will support skill development and employment support our third is business supports we have already rolled out a number of funding programs to support local businesses as an example businesses across many sectors that are still facing hardship can continue to access the funding through the yukon business relief program we responded quickly during the initial pandemic and we will continue to monitor continuously and adapt our programs where needed to address any gaps resilience means something different for each business in addition to funding we are providing assistance to help local businesses address their unique challenges so for example as many of you know the tourism and creative and cultural industries were hit hard by the pandemic strategies for these industries were being developed prior to the pandemic and i commend minister mclean i know this was important work beyond the strategy the tourism strategy that hadn't been updated in 10 years this is other work that was undertaken and so again being developed prior to the pandemic and of course will be more important than ever as we support this key area for economy on the path to resilience fourth pillar is a focus on infrastructure development infrastructure development projects represent investments in our future prosperity and are focused on long-term benefits these projects make it easier to access resources do business in the yukon and pave the way for economic diversification we already initiated several infrastructure projects prior to the pandemic such as the dempster fiber project which is underway and the yukon resource gateway program which is underway in many sections of that uh program as well as renewable energy infrastructure projects here and our work in northern bc the demster fiverr project for example will provide greater certainty for commercial activities especially in yukon's emerging innovation and knowledge sectors this work is currently underway and teams have been clearing brush this past year along the route similarly the yukon resource gateway program and renewable energy projects support long-term growth in our communities and provide a platform for other clean low-carbon initiatives across the territory last week our government signed the sixth project agreement with the yukon gate resource gateway program with the first nation of nationality done the project agreement provides funding for the first nation of natural united done to participate in planning design regulatory processes and construction activities all of these infrastructure projects align well with our current efforts to stimulate economic growth and diversification which is our fifth pillar for this plan a well-diversified economy creates a stable environment for activity investment and growth we will concentrate our efforts on investments that support entrepreneurship and the knowledge economy we are creating a broad innovation plan and recently concluded the public engagement on that plan some other areas of focus for economic diversification will include renewable energy biomass and agriculture renewable energies particularly in particular offers numerous economic growth and diversification opportunities for communities in first nations yukon's road ahead is our opportunity to drive progress on our climate commitments and continue our transition to a low carbon economy yukon's climate change strategy our clean future details a plan to create immediate and long-term economic benefits which include employment opportunities and spurring investment in local economies we are committed to supporting all residents businesses and communities we will continuously monitor again adapt and respond as needed and as we move forward and part of that key work has been both myself and my colleague um having continuous conversations with the private sector to understand the reality day-to-day and then again going back and working with our teams to make sure that our programs are meeting the needs of those folks in the private sector economic resilience is not a single action or policy or program it is a range of efforts with varying impacts that converge to achieve this goal where gaps are identified we will move swiftly to address them to maximize our recovery moving forward we are working to ensure that the yukon's economy rebounds with responsiveness and adaptability yukon communities recover and are resilient our partnerships with first nations are strengthened and uconners including vulnerable citizens are safe and healthy in closing i'd like to thank all of the you connors for their support we know this is a difficult path and we would be doing a disservice to you connors to simply assume the worst is behind us the negative impacts of this pandemic are compounded by the lack of certainty every individual and business is experiencing lack of uncertainty while today's announcement is good news for the territory and it's a step forward for economic response i understand market realities i encourage all business owners and operators to reach out to the government of uconn for help if they need it and i encourage all uconners to buy local support local and shop local again we will continue to listen and adjust as needed um before i turn over to my colleague i know that we will um we can answer some questions on our plan and we're going to have that plan hosted today online we've brought some copies for media that are here um i i have to just take a moment to thank um the folks at economic development there's folks here with us today um they have done a tremendous amount of work working across government and with departments um really tireless work there has been that that's the way they took this challenge on in the spring um and that has continued on and certainly with this particular plan um they have put an incredible amount of work in uh folks have spent a lot of time away from their families doing this work they're extremely talented they know how important it is that we have a proper plan going forward and wow do we have a talented group of people and whether it be the programs or this plan which they've developed for us this is work again that is leading the country and that's why we are seeing the results that we are although we we know we still have some challenges to overcome so i want to thank folks and i just hope that folks at economic development are extremely proud of their accomplishments um over this last year i'll hand it over to my colleague mr mclean great thank you thank you very much minister pillay it's really great to stand shoulder to shoulder with my colleague here today and when as i stand here i envision all of our partners standing shoulder to shoulder our departments this has not been uh uh only a government response it's certainly a whole yukon response and i feel very proud about that i too want to acknowledge the traditional territory of the kwan lindan first nation and the ta'ang kochan council it has been a year since a pandemic began to impact our territory and so much has changed i believe that we will forever be changed and i so i want to just reflect on the resilience plan and one of the things i've been thinking about quite a lot lately is that resilience is us going back to exactly the way things were i 100 believe that we will move beyond resilience beyond resilient that's what you connors are and that's what we've shown throughout this pandemic and we've been tested and we will come out stronger we are now in the middle of an extremely successful vaccination program and following the news this morning we know that brighter days are on the horizon i was very very pleased to listen to our premier and dr hanley this morning talk to you connors about that light at the end of the tunnel late last year we released the tourism and relief recovery plan as as our guiding document to help the tourism sector survive the pandemic and prepare for a strong recovery and i want to also thank the my department of tourism and culture the staff and again all of the partners for all of the hard work that they put into this and the many many many hours that they have worked to ensure that we have the right response for uconn developed in collaboration of course with the yukon tourism advisory board and other tourism stakeholders the tourism relief and recovery plan is a three-year 15 million investment to help the sector this funding is in addition to our main tourism budget of 13 million dollars because this sector is vital it's absolutely vital to our economy the plan is based on values and pillars of the ucontourism development strategy and is flexible and responsive to ensure supports for relief and recovery meet the needs of the sector this year we are investing 6.5 million to support our tourism sector and i know minister play went over a few of those numbers but i want to say it again 4 million is dedicated to tourism relief programs to support operators the continuation of the tourism accommodation sector supplement and the tourism non-accommodation sector supplement delivered in concert with the yukon business relief program are key programs that will ensure tourism businesses survive until travel can resume in a normal way in anticipation of travel resuming this summer 225 000 will help rebuild confidence in the industry including support for the adoption of the standardized safe travel protocols for the protection of visitors and residents now i want to just say as something specific to businesses around this that this is being hosted this initiative by the tourism association of yukon and folks are going to be looking for that certification and as we go forward so please businesses get your certification done and residents and we're also monitoring residents perceptions of tourism and community support for tourism we are working with the tourism industry association as i've said on a suite of initiatives to restore confidence and to ensure the industry can return in a way that protects the health and safety of yukon yukoners and visitors i want to just elaborate a little bit on the 450 000 that will support the successful elevate the success of the elevate program for this year last year we were fully subscribed we had 97 adapt adaptation projects for which totaled 1.4 million and 82 businesses sought professional advice which was about 415 000 this popular program has had significant uptake from the sector and and we will again be contributing this 450 000 this year and will be working towards partnership with canada as we prepare for recovery three hundred thousand will go towards the covet 19 [Music] um sorry tourism cooperative marketing fund that will bring this fund up to a million dollars this program will help support yukon's tourism-related businesses promote themselves locally nationally and globally another 500 000 will be invested into an innovative place brand for yukon known as the yukon story being developed in partnership with the yukon first nations chamber of commerce uh we're working hard to ensure uconn continues to be seen as a world-class tourism destination as people around the world start to think about traveling again the territory has a lot to offer and very i think that you know the values of uconners have really shone through in in this last year and when we developed the yukon tourism development strategy we absolutely got those values right and this isn't the workplace the just the place the world wants to be i really believe it's a place the world needs to be and we have that to offer we will be also investing 250 000 in enhanced explore your yukon campaign to again encourage you connors to travel throughout the territory this summer and to support our important tourism sector explore your yukon will raise awareness of all of the wonderful things to see and do and encourage you connors to rediscover their own backyard and the incredible experiences offered by our tourism industry i am also pleased to share that we will be committing over fifty thousand dollars to a coveted adapted version of the popular yukon explorers gold passport contest this summer so this beloved program is open to you connors and will encourage us to learn more about our territory's history and explore yukon's museums cultural centers and historic sites the program this year will be moving online to better comply with covid19 health and safety guidelines prizes will include real yukon gold and much much more so stay tuned for that one our territory has so much to share and i know there's there are many people and families living in our territory and this is this will be a great opportunity for them to see our many attractions this summer this morning's news was very hopeful as i said earlier i i was it was great to hear premier silver and dr hanley share their optimism about lifting restrictions as the vaccine rollout continues we could be ready to welcome visitors again in just a couple of months as we look to travel bubbles with our with other jurisdictions after the year we've had that is exciting news i know for myself my husband's son and his wife had a baby in december and we have not been able to see that little baby and so really looking forward to that i really want to encourage all you connors to do their part by getting immunized and continue practicing the safe six plus one i know i'm scheduled to get my vaccination my first shot tomorrow morning i'm looking forward to that we have a lot to look forward to and we will get there together we're almost there uconners and i too want to thank the staff at economic development and again tourism and culture for all of their hard work and this is uh this i think captures what you know what the vision is for our yukon as we go forward in this area we have a lot of work to do folks and um thank you so much for tuning in and for hearing our messages today thank you minister mclean thank you minister pillay we'll now go to our phone line to take questions from media we'll start with john ckw hi uh no questions thank you thanks john uh we'll move to steve with cbc uh hi yeah this is questions for uh minister mclean um it cut out a little bit so maybe maybe you said it but i just didn't hear it are are any of these things that you had mentioned like actually knew or like are they being announced today or have these already been announced i'm trying to figure out what exactly is new with this plan um well we we released the um tourism relief and recovery plan back in at the end of the year and minister play and i really wanted to put the picture together for uconners to to hear the whole plan and this sector particularly tourism has been the first hit the hardest hit and will have the longest recovery of all the other sectors so yes i have talked somewhat about these and they're captured nine there's 19 actions within the um relief and recovery but i um haven't talked um publicly about the amounts for this year which we tabled that main the the main estimates um in the legislature on last thursday and so i thought it was important to talk to uconners about what is contained in out of the 15 million that we allocated for relief and recovery for the tourism sector what is and and i did talk about a new initiative around the um travel local and explore our yukon campaign and some of the new dollars that are being allocated there so yes i you know there are some repeats but you know what this again is part of putting together our our whole view of our economic recovery thank you thanks steve do you have a follow up thank you minister this would be for the other minister minister pelay um i believe he said something about affordable housing uh do you have any specific numbers in mind like i'm making this up but next year we have we hope to have uh 100 more affordable housing units in uconn or something like that anything really specific any numbers you can share please um thanks steve yeah and i think when you go through um the document and i'm of course more than willing to um to have a conversation with you um what we've done is we've we've broken down there's a there's a it's it's a pretty um extensive plan that looks at all sectors um in all areas and and then of course on those on those five pieces so if you would if you would just um give me a bit of a moment i can i'm gonna share a couple things with you first of all um as as folks might see online here i'm gonna just if it's okay refer to this so you'll see the essentially the areas um where we have specific um programs and spend that accompany the overall plan and then again looking at these number of actions when you one specific point that you're speaking to is around affordable housing and that falls under our pillar that focuses on people and when you go through the plan you'll have an opportunity to take a look at really the work that was done around the yukon housing corporation and and really pivoting from the short term covet 19 rent assist program that we had in place and then again um moving towards um the program uh that we then adopted from yukon uh to the canada housing benefit um which began in november 2020. so there's specifics around um different programs we had to help people through this last year um but that's not it i mean when you when you take a look at um you know our budget that got tabled last week and the commitment there to a number of units that's being built but over and above that is um our commitment to infrastructure spend and so part of the reason for us being able to to speak um to this work this week is the fact that we have um two really important things that we needed to have in place and one was as the minister mentioned we had to have our budget tabled and that of course was was last thursday as well with that budget came been updated economic outlook we we have been working on this plan for quite a while again adapting as we've monitored what has played out um in the economy here in the yukon and then of course culminating with this so um steve i would say that the the numbers that are identified in this year's budget under uconn housing under lot development under um build-outs of new housing all of that work is um part of the overall strategy that helps us with affordable housing and that's just one pillar of this and so i would just um when you do have an opportunity uh later today to take a look at the plan you can really focus on page 12 and i think that does a really good job of just illustrating um all of the different things that are coming under this the other point i would make is what i really appreciate about this it's just not just a plan um with a series of items um that are not found not grounded in the priorities of the government uh the we've been very solid on our enduring priorities um throughout um this we we listen to you connors to pull that together um then from there the balance uh the values that we've identified which is being a balanced approach um inclusive coordinated responsive and adaptive and then from there the pillar so this is just very a very comprehensive approach a holistic approach to long-term success in our economy thank you we'll now go to hailey uconn news no questions thank you thank you hayley next we have claudiane at the carradio canada uh is this to sum it up that uh given there you've you're presenting this plan which is amalgamating everything that's been done so far um saying that what your approach has been so far is the right approach to keep going so you are staying on the same path uh that you have embarked on as far as economic recovery is uh concerned is is that what i'm understanding from this plan it will start and then i'll hand it over so um i think that we would say that we're confident in the the early programs i think this um today you know really again identifies the short-term approach that was put in place and i think um again we have to always be very sensitive to the folks who are under a tremendous amount of pressure that are in specific areas of the economy and predominantly in the tourism sector other areas of the economy have done and fared very well and so we do believe that when we looked at those initial programs primarily the business relief program we were in a situation where we had almost 500 clients to begin with by september of last year that was down to about 125 to 150 so and then we we saw some you know really extensive record retail sales in the yukon in the last quarter of uh 2020 i think just over about almost 100 820 million dollars so and then we've seen that really robust growth um around the residential um build out here in uh and white horse in the community so i think that there's many aspects of our plan that we're very confident in and we we believe that we got it right part of this was we we looked at thought leaders across the globe um one example would be the management consulting group the boston consulting group and who are identifying strategies for world leaders this plan was brilliantly being put together by yukon government hardworking public servants and many of the goals that were identified for um countries to follow were already in this plan and that was really the focus on green energy up updating our where we could our infrastructure so there are some pieces that have come together claudia end but i also believe you know minister can quickly talk about um we'll talk about the tourism piece but no there's things like universal child care which um is not about to go live until um april 1st we also have one of the largest infrastructure budgets that the territory has ever seen that again is new spend on all brand new projects some that have been announced during the throne speech or continuation of projects and then of course this week we announced um or i'm sorry last week we announced uh the first major energy project in the yukon in over a decade so no i think there's a lot of new items that are here um and we're lucky as minister mclean has said in the past um some of the really hard work maybe not the most exciting for folks but um when you when you go out and you do you you listen to folks and you build strategies around climate change around a green economy around the next 10 years of agriculture around the next 10 years of renewable energy here at uconn energy and of course as was talked about um i'll leave it to the minister i know and some of her strategies um we're in good shape to be able to have fully endorsed blueprints and now we're putting in um the funds to be able to execute and i think overall that's going to lead diversification and a strong economy going forward yeah thanks minister i'll um just say a few other points i believe that this plan this resiliency plan has been a year in the making um there we did not you know no one ever thought for one moment that we would be governing through a global pandemic three years in but that is in fact what we've done and it's been through careful careful management and working closely with you connors that has got nuts to where we are today and um and yeah so there are a lot of there's a lot of capturing of what we've done in in this and summing it up for you connors and then adding in what's um all of the other strategies and how they fit together and i think that's really important and i do want to just touch i know that the ministers talked a little bit about um the universal child care and all of the work that i've done i'll put my women's directorate hat on for a minute that in order to have real real economic recovery we need to have child care systems that work for women and that work for families and i had the opportunity to be part of um federal provincial territorial discussions around how we recover from this and the impact on women and the single single most important investment that was recommended to us was universal child care and good child care systems it's referred to there's there's a term being used she covery and that is um being used worldwide and so when i was able to share the fact that yukon is moving towards universal child care again a yukon that leads i think that this is absolutely one of one of the key areas for our for women in the territory to get back into the workforce and to support young families and to support uconners um i also know that you know we talk about some of the big big sectors within our our territory like tourism and mining and energy and all of these areas but the creative and cultural industry strategy that the minister referred to we've worked on that for the last couple of years it's the first strategy uh that focuses on this in uconn so i'm really proud of that work that that we've done again with you connors and that's going to shape out the next 10 years and really build out what the possibility is for creative and cultural that creative and cultural industry in yukon we had a 10-year plan when we came into the into covid 19 for tourism development and we um and that has guided us we are the envy of the country in terms of um having a well-thought-out value-based plan that absolutely fits with where we need to go as a territory so i'm really proud of the all of the work that is not a uconn government plan that is a yukon plan fully and so i just wanted to say those couple of things so yes we are capturing you know what we've done over the last year there was no road map for this and and we've created it and i think a uconn that leads is what resonates for me as we've gone through this thank you claudian do you have a follow-up i do let's see if i can uh thank you very much for that lengthy answer i see a lot of keywords or i hear a lot of keywords and almost slogans in there given uh the budget being tabled and some obviously looming elections coming how much flexibility do you think you'll be able to put into that plan how much more money could you inject if needs be in the coming weeks or months to to address uh address the situation i can ask for clarification so claudia and and i know that we um we did identify a number of um sector specific uh plans that we have just for clarification um you're asking about further investment potentially into our resiliency plan that we're tabling today yeah we never know i mean this is obviously a moving situation the pandemic is that you know the covet variants happen to not respond well to the vaccines things get off track things don't look as good you're presenting a plan that sounds like it's pretty final that's that's the plan you're presenting the budget is in elections are to be called any time uh so really what's your what's your flexibility financially to be able to uh to help businesses that me feel this is not enough um absolutely well i can i can say that just um to start our budget of course as you remember um has a 50 million dollar contingency in it um which really means that we were walking in last week with a three million dollar um surplus but i think it was very smart um by folks to make sure we have that i'm gonna i'm gonna hand it over to mr mclean just um to maybe speak to that um yeah i just in terms of the flexibility around the tourism relief and recovery it was built on that foundation that we knew that we needed to balance relief and recovery as we as we've gone through this so it's complete flexibility we've already had to adjust from the last from this fiscal year into the next we've had to adjust knowing the the reality of where we are today because there was absolutely no crystal ball in terms of what we would be facing in march and now we're in a situation where uconn is in a situation where we're rolling out the vaccinations this is where the first you know in the country to likely re um reach herd immunity and um you know so it was built on that basis that as things progress and things improve we will focus more on recovery and um in those aspects i mean there's 19 actions one of the 19 actions is relief the other 18 are about recovery and so we built it in that way to just create that that flexibility and to i can say that this has been a monumental task for our finance department to work within the the parameters of our our financial act and to be able to pivot and adjust and so i really thank all of the finance staff across the the whole of government because they have done a really tremendous job in working with us to ensure that uconners have what they need i know that there's lots of talk about the election pending election yeah we we do have to have an election this year but you know what our focus really has been on taking care of you connors ensuring that things are in place for them and that um you know we haven't let up we've continued to to make you know to be here every day to respond and to ensure that when an election is called uconners are the the right programs are in place for them as we go through that process thank you we'll now move to tim with the white horse star thank you i have only one question uh a lot of points have been touched upon already my question is going to be and i'm going to be provocative here considering that this is a rehash of already existing programs and basically new no new funding announcements what were you hoping to accomplish with this news conference um you know let me speak to that one tim i um uh i don't know if it's i don't if it's not if it's provocative i don't think it's accurate um actually um what we were sharing today is first of all um a series of um of or a blueprint that puts together um both the budget that was just announced um the minister um of tourism identifying a new strategy um for uh local spend and marketing um of course that comes on the on the heels off the fact um that we uh just uh this morning um have seen that there's the potential for being uh having some restrictions removed um in less than potentially in less than two months um of course that's always difficult and part of the challenge with this is um as other journalists um have uh identified today's and as claudia ann said it can be a moving target like we we everybody wants certainty but you can only do you can only make plans based on the information you have and so we wanted to make sure that we had the updated economic outlook we needed to make sure that we had our budget in place and then of course now that we're seeing um it's it's it's time for us to to be ready to expand um the dollars that are in place and to ignite the plans that have been worked on um and so that's you know part of what we're sharing today and i think it's it's pertinent information um um you know i i believe there's a number of things here um that are um that are new um whether it's um some of the initiatives around ensuring that our local economy and our spend is happening to start um i'm really excited about that work because um having uh been in the uh private sector and overseeing a number of operations at once in this community i can tell you um it takes some time to staff up um you need to make sure your marketing is in place folks are turning over and getting going again and so those are all really important signals again today the other piece tim which i think is important is i think this morning they talked about the clinic which is a and the walk-in clinic um and we can't um say enough how important it is that um not only that you get ready for an opening in the in the private sector if your business has been dormant but also that you were in a position that and i've learned this from mr mclean um as in other jurisdictions you please make sure you have a strategy to get your staff vaccinated it will be so important so today's a signal that we are getting ready um to get this economy moving in full with the information that we have today thank you all right i'd like to thank everyone for their time today and especially their patience as we had to take a brief pause from this announcement um as you heard this morning the next covet update will not be uh next week it'll be the following week so stay tuned for that thank you very much you

2021-03-13 00:15

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