November 30th, 2020
Hon. Chrystia Freeland
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance
Cc : Hon. Steven Guilbeault
Minister of Canadian Heritage
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada
K1A 0A6
Re: Support the tourism and culture industry during the pandemic
Dear Minister Freeland,
As the Member of Parliament for Fredericton, New Brunswick, I’m writing to express my concerns regarding the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the tourism, travel, hospitality, art, festival and event sectors.
As you know, the nature of their activities, bringing people together face to face, has left this industry quite restricted throughout the pandemic. Despite their best efforts to accommodate social distancing measures, many businesses have been without revenue for the past 6 months. As it is the case for many communities, these businesses and activities are crucial for my community’s economic, touristic, cultural, and social well being.
We need to support these sectors that have lost upwards of 95% of their revenues. I believe it is our duty to ensure that we help them through these tumultuous times by facilitating access to wage subsidies and liquidity as well as putting programs in place to help with fixed costs.
I am adding my voice to that of the coalition of hardest hit businesses and asking you to make sure they have the resources available during these difficult times to give them a chance to bounce back when we emerge from the pandemic. Canadians are going to be looking forward to events and festivals and we are going to need these entities on solid footing in the months to come.
Thank you for your consideration. I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this further with you.
Sincerely,
Jenica Atwin
MP Fredericton