SPECIAL EDITION
C-19 BULLETIN
September 17, 2020


BC Government
Announces Economic Recovery Plan

Today Premier Horgan and Minister James announced details on the Province's COVID-19 Economic Recovery Package.

A total of $1.19 billion has been allocated to new expenditures across four broad categories:
  • Recovery for People – $169 million
  • Recovery for Communities – $368 million
  • Recovery for Businesses – $405 million
  • Building Better Futures – $250 million

The plan includes investments of over $100 million to support tourism-related businesses and communities, including the following:

  • A new Tourism Task Force will bring together leaders from business, labour, First Nations and not-for-profits to seek innovative and creative ideas on how the tourism in BC can be well positioned for a 2021 tourism season and ideas on envisioning a sustainable future. $50 million is allocated in the Economic Recovery Plan to facilitate new measures that result from the Tourism Task Force’s work.

  • $19 million to support small, municipalities who are dependent on tourism to build, adapt and diversify their tourism infrastructure. This program will create job opportunities in the communities and prepare for the future.

  • $14 million to support targeted tourism development initiatives in the six tourism regions across BC to help the tourism industry recover from COVID-19.

  • $20 million for tourism infrastructure projects supporting destination development through the new Community Economic Recovery Infrastructure Program. Local governments, not-for- profits, and Indigenous nations will be able to apply for project funding to help bring back visitors through investments in tourism infrastructure and amenities in communities, including pivoting mountain resorts to all season destinations.

  • The new Small and Medium Business Recovery Grant program commits up to $300M to support one-time grants for eligible small businesses that have been hard-hit by COVID-19. Grant amounts will be scalable based on the size and annual pre-COVID revenues of the business, with eligible amounts ranging from $10,000 to a maximum of $30,000. Hard-hit tourism operators will be eligible to receive a top-up of up to $10,000, for a maximum grant of $40,000 based on overall eligibility criteria. Eligible businesses will include those with between 2 and 149 employees that have seen a COVID-related revenue reduction of at least 70% and continue to have revenues below 50% of pre-COVID levels.


Learn more online at: strongerbc.gov.bc.ca

View the Backgrounder document here.

TIABC will continue to share information in upcoming C-19 Bulletin about this recovery plan and how tourism businesses, communities and stakeholders can participate.
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Tourism, Hospitality, and Accommodation Collective Say Provincial Support
for Recovery a Good Start

Industry Looking Forward to Working With Government to Help Businesses Survive

Leaders of the largest associations representing tourism, hospitality, and accommodation say that the Province’s new recovery initiatives give hope for businesses to survive the pandemic. The collective is keen to work with government immediately to put money into the hands of tourism operators to protect jobs and keep businesses from closing permanently in the coming months as the industry continues to struggle from the impacts COVID-19.

In July, more than 40 sector associations signed off on a submission to government requesting $680 million in recovery funds to ensure the visitor economy survives until such time travel, border and other damaging restrictions are lifted and consumer confidence returns.

Since early spring, TIABC, ABLE BC, the BC Hotel Association, Restaurants Canada, the Metro Vancouver Tourism and Hospitality Response and Recovery Task Force, the Greater Victoria Tourism Rescue and Recovery Task Force, and the Adventure Tourism Coalition, among others, have been calling on the Province to provide recovery funds in the form of working capital grants or low interest/no interest loans to help businesses address liquidity.

Download the news release here or visit our website at:
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Fact Sheet

The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture has provided a three-page Fact Sheet about BC's COVID-19 Economic Recovery Plan.

It provides a summary of four sections:

  • Investing in the resilience of BC's Visitor Economy

  • Investing in Business and Tourism Workers

  • Helping Visitors Access Communities Across BC

  • Improving the Visitor Experience

Download the fact sheet here.
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