Hotels Dying as Border Stays Closed: Pressure Increasing For Canada Border Changes

Hotels Dying as Border Stays Closed: Pressure Increasing For Canada Border Changes

June 17, 2021 ctn_admin

Canadian hotels are dying because of the closed Canada-U.S. border, says the head of the Hotel Association of Canada.

Susie Grynol, the association’s president and CEO, told a Tourism Industry Association of Canada panel on Thursday that hotels “are at a breaking point” and that the closed border is “devastating our country.”

Grynol said 70% of Canadian hotels say they’ll be out of business by the end of this year without government help.

U.S. Representative Chris Jacobs of New York also took part in the panel talk, part of an attempt to raise the pressure on both Canada and the U.S. to end the 15-month border closure. The current closure order expires Monday, June 21.

Federal officials have said the easing of border measures will be a phased-in approach, and have hinted the reopening won’t start until some time in early July.

Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith of Toronto says that’s too long to wait.

“It isn’t fast enough or further enough in keeping with the science,” he said during the panel talk, adding the border should reopen right away

La Presse on Thursday reported that the border would not be opened on June 21. It caused a stir, but not many experts have predicted an opening by Monday. Instead, what many pundits, and federal ministers, are suggesting is that a gradual, phased-in approach to opening the border will likely be laid out in the next day or two.

Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc this week said there should be news about border changes by Monday, which of course there has to be because that’s when the current closure expires.

A trio of western Canadian premiers this week called for a border opening sooner versus later. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was expected to raise the issue Thursday night in a virtual meeting with Canadian premiers and territorial leaders.

Speaking during Thursday’s panel talk, Grynol said many downtown hotels in Canada are operating at 90% less revenue than before the pandemic.

“Our hotels are empty and they’re dying. And I just don’t think there’s enough of an appreciation for how critical a state we’re in here.”

Grynol said 75% of summer visitors to Canada are international visitors, and that half of those are Americans.

“If we have the majority of Americans already now double vaccinated, there’s no scientific reason why they can’t be coming here and spending their dollars in Canada.”

“Our loyal employees are seeing a resurgence in other sectors, but no plan from the federal government on when they will see steady work again,” Grynol said. “What we need is certainty. Everyone needs the federal government to table a comprehensive, evid-ence -based, smart border initiative to allow us to be ready to welcome guests back safely.”

Beth Potter, president and CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada, said the pandemic has displayed a half million workers in Canada. “If the NHL can go back and forth across the border … then why can’t the rest of Canadians, and why can’t Americans come into Canada to do business?”

Tori Barnes, Executive Vice President Public Affairs and Policy for the U.S. Travel Association, said tourism visits from Europe and Canada are 98% below 2019 levels, and that the U.S. is losing $340 million a week because the border is closed.