As a result of today's announcement (link below) that crown land camping will be open effective June 1st and the potential of Provincial Campgrounds opening June 14th as well as the lack of clarity on who in private industry can and cannot be open, we are calling on all tourist operators to write to Premier Ford, the Minister of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries and your MPP.
It is time that you tell them directly about:
- the financial losses you've suffered
- the need for more meaningful financial assistance from the Province
- the challenges that you have and will continue to face
- the staffing issues
- the concerns for safety of staff and guests
- the lack of respect and acknowledgement for seasonal businesses who are the backbone of the economy
- the inconsistent communications from all levels of Government and their agencies
- the inability for businesses to plan with no clear dates or timelines
- and any other points you want to make.
NOTO has also posted this call to action on our public
NOTO Facebook page
as well as our
NOTO Group page
. We encourage you to share you personal thoughts and take some time to vent about the current situation on whichever of these two sites you wish.
Please keep in mind that the public NOTO page will be monitored for bad language as well as to ensure that respect is given to all that post. We want to ensure that contributors feel safe to express their opinions and share with others.
Here is a link to MNRF's announcement from May 30, 2020:
In addition to these activities, NOTO is currently joining forces with all other tourism sector organizations to demand urgent action from the Government to restart Ontario's tourism and travel sector.
I know that many of you are confused about whether you can open your business or not based on what you are seeing from others in industry and conflicting information that you are receiving from other agencies of Government. If you are considering re-opening in advance of clear communication from Government, I urge you to take the following steps:
- Contact your insurance company to discuss whether you are covered if you open during the emergency order
- Contact your health unit
- Contact your municipality
- Contact the OPP
Ultimately, you are assuming the risk and you will need to determine whether you are going to open or not in absence of an official announcement.
We will continue our efforts to obtain the clarification we believe is necessary for the sake of the resource-based tourism industry.
In the meantime, what I encourage all tourism businesses to do is get their protocols ready. NOTO has completed a comprehensive protocol document for the Resource-Based Tourism Sector and have submitted them to the Workplace Safety & Prevention Services (WSPS) for vetting. We hope to share them next week. In the meantime, we have gathered information on our
COVID-19 Page
that you can use as well the WSPS has developed a number of protocol documents for different sectors on their
COVID-19 Hub
.
Be safe everyone.
Laurie Marcil
705-499-7556