Supports for the tourism sector
okay uh good morning everyone uh john horgan here on the traditional territory of the lakongan speaking people the esquimalton song he's first nation and i'm joined here today by minister melanie mark and jonathan burke the board chair of the hr macmillan space center as we all know the days are getting warmer and a little bit longer and over 55 percent of eligible british columbians have received their first vaccine now while we still need to bear down against the pandemic all signs are pointing to positive days ahead this coming summer we have challenges to be sure but we need to focus for the next number of days on following rules making sure we're not traveling unnecessarily and hoping for a better future coming after the may long weekend everybody in bc of course has fond memories of visiting and working at bc's major tourism attractions from museums to amusement parks to science centers these sites are part of bc's world-renowned tourism industry and right now people in tourism are hurting in fact few sectors have been hit as hard by covid19 as the tourism sector many of our major tourism attractions as we all know and love are struggling and we need to make sure we're there for them the effects of course are far-reaching not just on those anchor attractions but to the many communities that depend on tourism landmarks to have people coming through their community to boost the local economy and bring visitors to town they provide many young people with their first jobs i worked on the coho ferry a tourism operation from port angeles to victoria when i was in high school telling people how to get to butchart gardens when they came off the ferry and i'm not alone many many other british columbians had the same experience their first job and also an introduction to how important it is to welcome back visitors to our province but not just yet it's not far off but we need to stay vigilant and we need to be mindful that our international borders remain closed and there are public health orders in place to restrict us non-essential travel it's critically important to our well-being that we do so but we also need to now start to focus on what we do coming out of the pandemic and how can we help businesses not just survive but to recover strongly as we come out of the covet 19 pandemic today we're launching a new program to support bc's tourism landmarks the new bc major anchor attractions program will provide a total of up to 50 million dollars to sites right across british columbia and that will include of course tour bus operators who will be eligible because they bring people to many of these attractions day after day month after month year after year this is of course a grant not a loan and that means it can be used for a number of things to offset fixed costs like payroll rent utilities and other costs that have been accrued over the past number of months all of this with the goal of making it easier to restart and ramp up operations when it's safe to do so there's more to do to support tourism to be sure but this is a critically important first step it helps us to fill the gaps that were identified by the tourism task force which was put together at the request of the industry overall it supports midterm recovery and long-term resilience for the tourism industry we all want to enjoy the iconic attractions that make british columbia so special and i'm going to ask minister melanie mark now to share some of those details with you as we prepare to welcome the world back to british columbia again when it's safe to do so over to you mel thank you premier sim gagette sigita monik give it wilson hi everyone my name is melanie mark my nisqa name is la hyqua scack and i'm very proud to be bc's minister for tourism arts culture and sport i'm also the first and only first nations woman to get elected in bc and to serve nbc's cabinet i'm proud to be niska gitzen cree in ojibwe and i'd like to acknowledge the traditional territory of the musqueam squamish and slave-a-tooth first nations whose territory were coming to you from thank you for joining us from all parts of the province to hear about further supports for the tourism sector as the premier said the kobit 19 pandemic has had devastating and long-term impacts on tourism businesses from small businesses trying to stay open safely and keep people working to rent payments and cash flow for large organizations we know the hardships people in the tourism industry continue to face throughout the pandemic our government has worked with tourism leaders to listen to their feedback and provide additional supports major anchor attractions and tour bus companies have faced unique challenges across our tourism ecosystem they play a vital role in our economy they are key employers in local communities businesses across the province rely on anchor attractions to draw visitors to communities to visit the gift shops the restaurants and other attractions in the area tour bus companies are vital to make these regional destinations and experiences accessible for travelers today's announcement means we're taking action to ensure these important institutions can continue to create jobs contribute to local culture and draw people back to bc once it's safe to do so many major attractions anchor attractions and tour bus operators continue to face significant liquidity challenges the loss of these organizations would undermine the tourism industry's short-term recovery prospects and significantly impact jobs in the tourism sector there is up to 50 million dollars in supports as the premier mentioned through the bc major anchor attractions program major anchor attractions and urban centers that receive 75 000 or more visitors per year eligible up to 1 million dollars major anchor attractions in rural areas that receive 15 000 or more visitors per year and tour bus companies that serve thirty thousand or more passengers per year are both eligible for up to five hundred thousand supporting anchor attractions and tour bus companies will help maintain vitally important tourism infrastructure it also has a strong ripple effect as as the premier mentioned on our youth many tourism attractions provide invaluable work experience job and life skills training for young people and in some cases help students pay for their post-secondary education the bottom line is people are our economy and when people are working our economy works starting today the province will be accepting applications from anchor attractions and tour bus companies throughout bc as the premier said these are grants not loans it's a very very exciting day for the industry the application window will be open until monday june 7th with funds provided by july 2021 i strongly encourage organizations to apply because we want these supports to help major incur attractions and tour bus companies weather the impacts of covid19 now so that bc remains a globally competitive destination of choice in the long term when we safely invite visitors back to our beautiful province with almost 60 percent of eligible british columbians vaccinated there is reason to be hopeful together we are going to make progress and on that note i would like to introduce jonathan burke board chair of the hr macmillan space center in vancouver he will share the experiences those in the touring tourism sector face today and how these supports will help thank you over to you jonathan thank you very much minister mark and premier horgan i'm very happy to be part of this announcement it's very exciting for our organization to give you some context of what happened to the space center due to covid we employ approximately 50 people here in vancouver at the at the space center we had to lay off over half of our employees at the beginning of covet 19. we've we've been slowly drawing people back through wage supports and other programs and our board and our management team immediately focused on three priorities first survive as an organization second working on resetting our organization we went to a lot of online program we tried to develop whatever programming we could that could get out to an audience that didn't involve on-site visits but to give you some context of what happened to our on-site attendance in 2019 we had almost 143 000 people move through the gates at the h.r mcmillan space center that went to 33 000 in 2020 almost a 76 decline so you can imagine what happened to our revenues we went from almost 1.2 million in revenues to
270 000 in revenues from gate admissions a 78 decline in revenue which was very dramatic and it was very very difficult to deal with with what happened in addition we also provide a lot of educational programs at the hr macmillan space center to school-age children and our 2020 attendance uh declined almost 80 percent for school-aged children visiting our site so it was it was a dramatic impact we're now focusing on getting ready for when the pandemic is what we might call over if it and that is part of our survive reset and now thrive and these funds from the government will really contribute towards our ability to thrive as an organization as we emerge from the pandemic to prepare for for guests to come back for all of the associated activities that happen on our beautiful location and this is just a wonderful day and a wonderful announcement and i thank you uh thank you uh jonathan for telling us the story of hr mcmillan and thank you mel for laying out the details of this exciting opportunity for the major tourism attractions here in british columbia and with that i'll ask the media to pose their questions through lindsay thank you as a reminder to everybody on the phone line please press star one to enter the queue you are limited to one question and one follow-up first question today is from bender sergeant ctv uh hi i was just wondering how many of these tourist attractions and tour bus operators do you expect will be eligible to apply and on average how much funding could they expect to receive go ahead mel thank you so for for companies that have over 150 employees uh they will be eligible to up to one million dollars for the tour companies and the rural attractions they will be up to five hundred thousand dollars there are less than a dozen uh tour bus companies that we're aware of uh with the rural we've got different uh attractions across the province so we're really trying to make this 50 million dollars stretch across the area codes uh to support anchor attractions that are removable as the premier mentioned uh the landmarks in our communities and and so we're our our job right now is to try to get the money out the door today get people applying today bender do you have a follow-up yes um and i know that you're speaking about businesses that have 150 employees or more but there are a number of businesses that have quite a lot less um and they're worried because the wage subsidy and rent a relief is being phased out so they're asking for a re-opening plan um and you know other provinces that you know have reopening plans that relate to case numbers and just wondering premiere if you can tell us you know whether you are small operator that has only maybe one employee or if you are planning uh events in the industry is bc going to be announcing that as part of a reopening plan well thanks for the question and we have of course been providing small and medium-sized businesses with grants for some time now we revised the program to add an additional top up for the tourism sector because of the challenges it's faced mostly those small operators that you you identified we'll be talking dr henry and minister dicks and i will be having a press conference next week to talk about the future a talk about where we're going from here and we'll have more details at that time but i want to stress for people that we set the may long weekend as a target for the circuit breaker because we need to make sure we reduce cases we see hospitalizations go down and we increase our vaccinations we're right on track but we're not out of the woods yet and i don't want to give false hope until we get through the weekend and we look at the data and then we'll be laying all that out very clearly for the public at that time next question is from keith baldrick global news um hi uh premier minister mark just wondering about the pne they're looking for 8 million dollars this program would if they qualify assume they would would max out their their funding grant at one million dollars uh is there another mechanism that your government's looking at to enable the p e to survive beyond this well certainly it's uh attractions like the p e not for profits that we had in mind when we developed the program and i know that the p e has other options through the city of vancouver primarily and we're going to continue to work with both the city and the p e and of course other attractions across the province but this was designed for the p e to make the application i look forward to seeing that material when it comes forward i know keith the peony has a particular spot in your heart from your time like me working in the tourism sector as a kid keith do you have a follow-up yeah just is any more detail beyond that i mean so are you ruling out giving the p e more money or is there an option for the p e to qualify for further funding beyond this particular program when the p e applies for this program we'll have a better understanding of the challenges that they face and we'll work with stakeholders across the piece who have a vested interest in the success at playland and the p e to make sure that it can go forward but we have a whole bunch of attractions across the province that have been waiting for this announcement and i know they're all going to be excited about it and i'm sure the p e will be as well rob shaw check news oh hi uh premiere wondering if you could list some island attractions that you think are eligible here like bouchard gardens i know you've mentioned in the past the royal bc museum which is technically i guess a crown corporation are there major island attractions that uh qualify here and also uh just on the application deadline june 7th i think it's 20 days it seems kind of tight given how these programs require paperwork and that type of thing so what do you make of that well on the timeline rob we've been working step by step with the major attractions to put this program in place so there's no surprises here you'll see from jonathan's uh contribution from h.r mcmillan and others who have made comments uh as part of this announcement that the industry and the sector was waiting for this they've helped develop this so i don't believe there are going to be many bumps along that road certainly butchart gardens is the one that springs to mind here on the island but tourism or pardon me tourist bus operators as well will be able to access this resource and that's critically important we want to of course make sure we get as many people to attractions as possible and the best way to do that is on a tour bus rob do you have a follow-up sure thanks also premier on the tourism issue uh would want to know um what you may or may not personally be doing about the cruise ship legislation that has passed so far in the united states are you meeting with the alaskan delegation are you doing anything kind of personally with the prime minister or others on the spot yeah we i received correspondence from senator sullivan and murkowski when they were bringing the legislation forward they made it clear in that correspondence that this was going to be a temporary measure until such time as border restrictions were lifted so i'm taking great comfort in that the legislation is specific about that i have talked to the federal government about borders and how we're going to respond not just to the cruise sector but in fact the entire world and those decisions and discussions are ongoing but i will say that the notion of technical stops at british columbia ports if that will assist the industry to be maintained we're happy to talk about that but the before there's a cruise ship going up and down the west coast of north america the u.s center for disease control has to approve that the federal government will have something to say about that as well from my perspective as the head of a sub-national government that has a long coast that welcomes the world and welcomes uh tour ships by the many many hundreds uh with uh literally hundreds of thousands of passengers we want to see that come back we want to see that come back strongly but it's not going to happen in the next number of weeks and at this point it's not going to happen until next season but with vaccinations going as well as they are with case counts and hospitalizations going down here in british columbia at any event we're feeling confident but it's not just about bc it's about north america it's about the world and we have to gauge with our federal partners what's happening elsewhere before we open the doors to uh people from somewhere else next question is from katie derosa vancouver son hi premier i'm just wondering to what extent is the province actually consulting with uh tourism operators in the tourism industry on the restart plan because again many of them are asking to be included and asking for that road map so that they can plan for the summer so what level of involvement do they have on the reopening well it's been significant and i'll pass it to mel to to talk about the details but we have from the beginning been working with industries not for profits labor communities to make sure that we're all on the same page and i believe the success we've had in british columbia although there have been bumps along the way relative to other jurisdictions is a direct result of the communication that we've had government to business to labor to not-for-profits and also of course with the federal federal partners and municipal partners as well i'm very proud of the work that all of us at british columbians have done to get to where we are but a few more days yet and i'll ask mel to go into the details about her discussions with the tourism sector great thanks for the question yeah we struck a tourism advisory table um dr bonnie henry has attended uh four of the four meetings uh to hear firsthand what the concerns are so that of course the pho is alive to the issues that governments alive to the issues and the solutions and the calls to action right now we're striking working groups that's a plan moving forward to drill down because not all of the sectors are the same they're not all equally impacted by the pandemic but the tourism advisory table is giving us that advice uh we're working closely with them in tandem you know cabinet the senior officials are all working around the clock so that we've got good news to come shortly but they are at the table because we need them to tell us what they need for the immediate and medium and then long term as we move through this pandemic thank you katie do you have a follow-up yes what about the the restaurants in terms of indoor dining will they be able to reopen after the may long weekend are they being given sort of a heads up so that they can get the necessary supply and um a higher back staff if needed like what's the plan for indoor dining uh well again katie uh though all of those plans will be laid out next week uh but be assured that we are in in discussion with the the hospitality sector have been for a long long time and uh we will give as much notice as we can uh i want people to understand though that we are not out of this yet the circuit breaker remains in place until next week and people need to adhere to that we are so close uh and we need to just keep going for a little bit longer i'll also add to your question uh because melanie has a unique distinction at the cabinet table overseeing tourism which has been struggling but also film which was one of the first industries in british columbia to put in place safe operating practices and we have seen record numbers of television and film uh sets in british columbia since the pandemic began and that's a testimony to the hard work of the sector to make sure they had plans in place and we have tried almost in every sector tourism is the big challenge is no people if you're not having people come you're going to have difficulty having people go through the turnstiles as jonathan said about h.r mcmillan but when it comes to other sectors that melanie has been working with we've been finding safe ways to operate that have continued to keep people employed and to continue to keep people focused and active on getting out of covet 19 and back to better days in the months ahead rich is this my global news i'm just wondering premier whether there'll be any eligibility requirements here for organizations that already have received substantial grants uh you mentioned some of the provincial grants there are federal grants where there are some anchor attractions like the pne who have received almost no financial support so is that weighed in here and are you unfairly putting the burden of the peony all on the shoulders of the city of vancouver which doesn't have the same sort of access to funds as your government does well i don't think we're doing anything unfairly the city is primary responsibility for the p e not the province and the p e could have applied i'm confident for some of the federal programs if they if they chose to do so we're confident that this program is available to them we're excited about that and we're going to of course continue working with the p e uh the board and others at the city to make sure that it can come back better than ever in the in the year ahead and that's our that's our commitment but we have a whole bunch of other uh balls in the air as i've said and and we're comfortable that this is going to land well for the vast majority of the major attractions in bc follow up richard there's a conversation being had about the future of the oakland a's and one of the locations that major league baseball is potentially looking at is vancouver would you be supportive of a province of a major league baseball team moving to british columbia 100 percent uh i was excited ecstatic to work with the canadians uh vancouver canadians when there was uh the prospect of them potentially moving out of vancouver i spoke with management and ownership in fact at that time and was delighted to see uh the seas stay in vancouver now of course we need to address a whole bunch of other issues before we get a ball thrown uh and a bat swung but uh if there was a prospect of bringing mlb to vancouver i would be right behind that and so i know minister mark would be very enthusiastic as well tanya fletcher cbc yeah premier the hospitality sector has been desperate for a restart plan you kind of talked about it a bit uh earlier but you know dr henry hasn't ruled out extending the current restrictions past may 25th so what do you said a hotel operator specifically wondering if you know the peak summer season might be a write-off for them if non-essential um travels among the regions remains in place beyond this long weekend yeah i certainly understand the challenges uh tanyan thank you very much for the question but i also know that the vast majority of british columbians support keeping our borders closed they support non-essential travel being restricted until such time as we see the impact on our hospitals for example our frontline workers our our health care workers have been stressed to the max over the past 15 months and we do not want to see a spike in cases that will lead to an increase in hospitalizations and that's why dr henry has put in place i believe a thoughtful plan and she has talked as melanie said to the sector repeatedly about what the challenges are and what are the metrics that we'll be looking for and we'll be laying out in more detail next week and the industry knows that tanya do you have a follow-up yeah i believe in question period minister mark had said that you will be meeting with alaskan senators in the coming days but a few moments ago you gave no indication that would be happening only suggesting that you had early communication with them or from them so can you clarify whether you will be having new discussions with him this week and what those might entail if so we have made my office has made requests uh for meetings with both senator sullivan and murkowski and we haven't settled date yet i know i'm meeting with governor inslee later this week and i didn't want to announce a meeting that has not yet been set but the the overture has been made the letters the correspondence has been going back and forth i have to say both senators have been very proactive about this they understand the positive relationship between alaska and british columbia they don't want to diminish that in any way but they want to stand up for their sector and i absolutely support that next question is from lisa houston news 11 30. hi premier we're calling upon what some of the people have have asked you're saying that when you get these applications in you will look at what companies or what attractions need aquarium science world different places million dollars is not enough for many of these so what can or will be done to bolster that considering that this summer is looking a lot like last summer meaning people aren't going to have a tourism that they had previously well i i'm more optimistic about the summer uh than you i guess uh i i've seen uh 56 percent of british columbians who are eligible get a first dose i've seen almost an endless supply and now being provided by the federal government which of course we would have all loved to have seen in january and february but it's here today we've seen a decline in case counts the seven day rolling averages are very positive the impact on hospitalizations and acute care is very positive so i'm optimistic that uh come the summer we're gonna be uh having full mobility but right now i don't want people to hear oregon say let's go out and party because that's not what i'm saying i'm saying we have all done a great deal to get here and we'll have more to say next week lisa do you have a follow-up i do because full mobility here in the province even in canada still will see hotel operators attractions bus drivers all of these locations whether big cities or rural probably worse in rural areas not bringing in the money they had last you know two years ago so will there be more money available if they're seeing the same kind of hard hit summer or even a you know even a bit better than last summer will there be more money available for these businesses these tourism-based businesses well again i i put a lot of emphasis on our vaccine program and immunization not just in canada and north america but indeed around the world we are not going to be leaving kovit behind on july 1st it will be with us for the foreseeable future what will change is how we manage that risk and those are those risks are better managed by having a fully immunized community that can welcome others from around the world who are in a similar position there are a lot of hoops to go through yet a lot of discussions with the federal government and and international partners for that matter and i'm optimistic that we're going to have a much better summer than this year than we did last year but i don't want anyone to be under the illusion that we're going to flick a switch or snap our fingers and all of a sudden we're back to what we were at because that's not going to happen but we are in a good place and we have committed from the beginning of this pandemic that the province will be there for people for businesses and for communities as long as we have to but i don't want to predict the day we announce a 50 million dollar grant program where the gaps are going to be two weeks from now when they make themselves clear we'll deal with them at that time what i do know is that we consulted widely on this program we took direction and advice from the sector and we put this in place and it's going to be well received will we be done now i don't believe so but this is a good start smart canadian press hi there i'm wondering if you can give a ballpark figure on how many um anchor uh attractions are eligible for this or would be sharing the funds go ahead mel so some of our number of our numbers suggest that there could be up to 40 for the sorry for the rural up to about 40 in vancouver the more urban maybe 30. um this is with all due
respect new terrain for government to be handing out grants um to a sector and you know part of the call to action is because we're in the middle of the this global pandemic but examples could be museum of anthropology bouchard gardens capilano suspension bridge peony science world wildlife places attractions that have as the premier mentioned that kind of landmark quality it's immovable and those tour operators are also going to be essential to mobilize and move folks between destinations which is why we've included them because they're the lifeline to get visitors to to these attraction sites the reason why we've we've opened the window to to june 7th is we know that we need to get the money out the door which is why we want people to apply as soon as possible assess uh what their needs are and get get the checks out the door so that we we have these destinations of choice and those anchors available um post-pandemic for years to come thank you amy do you have a follow-up yeah thanks i mean we've talked about the pne but um more broadly speaking do you do you genuinely believe this is enough money to prevent any of these anchors from going under yes yes i do yeah yeah i think both of us would answer the affirm and again this this is uh we have been developing programs for the past 15 months that didn't exist in bc before didn't exist at the federal level before this is uncharted territory every time we make a new announcement and every time we do we better refine the criteria to make sure we can get the money out quickly and melanie and her team have worked very closely with the tourism sector to make sure that we've got all of this covered and corralled and 50 million dollars will be significant as we go into the summer of 2021 and there's more to do we're certainly open to that discussion and i don't know if mel you want to add to that yeah i mean i think i think this i think there was an earlier question maybe by lisa this is a long uh a menu um there are a number of grants that we put out the door the sector has asked for grants not loans so people don't have to pay it back there's also funds that have come from the federal government in their 2021 budget which are very promising and we're going to be advocating that bc gets its share for events and festivals so i i think this will help um and we're real live to being at the table with the sector to understand what the needs are as we move our way through the the pandemic thank you we have time for one more question that comes from rob buffum ctv vancouver island oh thank you for taking my question i guess i wanted to confirm that this 50 million dollars is not new money it's money that was announced back in the budget last month and i also wanted to get your reaction to concerns from it's been raised earlier but concerns from tourism industry folks who say we really need a plan because wholesalers are trying to figure out the year 2022 plans and the tourism industry doesn't have a plan yet that they can pass on what's your reaction to that well i can tell you that i was on a website yesterday looking uh to see how easy it was to get a flight anywhere and every time i put in vancouver to anywhere they said cannot sell so this is not about bc this is about the world we're in a global pandemic we are a better place than many because of the hard work of british columbians to get to a place where we can have more travel we can have more economic activity and the other bit of good news is that the pent-up desire of british columbians to go and see their friends to go to places that they always meant to go to but the past year they've been barred from going to means i believe that come this summer there is going to be a lot of people moving around seeing things they've never seen before spending that discretionary dollars that they do have in their pocket to stimulate and boost activity right across bc and i'm excited about that but to suggest and i know you weren't suggesting in your question but to suggest that bc is isolated in this case is just not true the challenge we have is that the world is gripped by this and we've seen on the nightly news different jurisdictions having different reopening strategies all of them tied to vaccinations i know the uk my my eldest son lives in london england and the freedoms that he has to move around had been severely restricted for a long long period of time but he and his spouse are going traveling next week they're really excited about it and that's because of the vaccination program in the uk as we continue with our vaccination program here unprecedented in its success in my opinion we'll be in a better position to not just plan for for 2022 but i think get a good kickstart on 2021. rob do you have a follow-up i do it's on behalf of a colleague who's doing a story about legions in bc who are upset that they haven't uh received funding from the province in relation to the circuit breaker grants um what's your response premier 2 legions are upset that they haven't got funding during this tough pandemic time and might there be any financial funding coming their way well there have been opportunities for legions to apply for a range of programs over the past year whether it be assistance with rent assistance with wage subsidies if they're rehiring after a protracted closure the the province will help there the federal government has helped as well but the circuit breaker was designed for for-profit businesses and regrettably the legion which i support 100 percent uh just got my renewal uh paid and in the mail yesterday uh i believe that uh we will have to look with the federal government and with local governments who have an ability to help shape the legions in their community how we get forward from here but we all know that uh this has been a year like no other and and i i look forward every year to remembrance day ceremonies in langford and ensue at both of the legions in my community and i know people across canada feel the same way what i can predict without any doubt is that november 11 2021 will be a day filled with people reminding ourselves of the sacrifices others have made for our freedoms and then sharing in those freedoms by going to a cenotaph going to a legion and supporting those not-for-profits and maybe uh making a donation beyond uh the the usual donations that are given at that time of year i call on all british columbians to look to their legions and see what they can do to help them through this difficult time but the circuit breaker was designed for for-profit businesses we're going to continue to look at ways to help the legion but again i i appeal to everyone in their communities to recognize and acknowledge the great work that's done by our legions mostly volunteer work and and go in and do what you can to help out that's all the time we have thank you thanks everybody thanks melanie thanks jonathan you
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