TIAC attacks US and Canadian government initiatives

Emily Pacey

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The Tourism Industry Association of Canada has told Canadian border retailers that government programmes hampering the trade are short-sighted and disastrous

Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC) president and CEO Randy Williams described the government’s decision to axe the rebate as “disastrous” and told delegates at the Frontier Duty Free Association’s annual conference that the present Canadian government “does not see the connection between tourism and the C$9.2bn ($8.2bn) tax revenues the industry brings it every year”.

TIAC is spearheading a campaign to fight the government on its rescinding of the visitor rebate program (VRP), which reimburses goods and services tax to visitors to Canada. Many land border retailers run rebate desks and benefit from customers who then spend the rebate in their stores. Williams said, “The short-sighted act of axing the VRP will have the biggest impact on tourism of anything in the last ten years.”

Williams also attacked the US government for its security policy, which has resulted in all passengers crossing US borders being required to carry a passport by July 2009 at the latest. Williams told delegates: “The US government is motivated almost entirely by security concerns. The decision to repeal the VRP was made without consultation and made on the basis of very little data. Both our own and the US governments are blindly following their own agendas, oblivious to the collateral damage of their actions to industries such as ours.”

He summed up by saying that tourist agencies including the Canadian border duty-free industry must also address their global competitiveness.