Executives at the Canadian Tourism Commission paid themselves five-figure quarantine bonuses even as tourism collapsed, records show. Access To Information documents obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation detailed COVID-19 bonuses and pay raises approved at the same time the Commission publicly lamented tourism bankruptcies..“Crown corporations should be sharing in the tough times,” Franco Terrazzano, federal director of the Taxpayers Federation, said in a statement. “They should not be handing out bonuses and pay raises while their neighbours outside government take cuts and lose their jobs.”.The Commission in the period from 2020 to 2021 awarded $1.2 million in bonuses. A majority of eligible employees, up to 87% of payroll, received a yearly bonus..“Among its executives the average bonus was $32,652 in 2020,” said Terrazzano. The Commission said it cut executive bonuses to the equivalent of $16,126 last year “in recognition of the adverse impact of COVID-19 on the tourism industry.”.According to Blacklock's Reporter, industry losses over the period totaled at least 197,000 jobs and 45% of revenues, some $46.8 billion, according to a June 17 Department of Industry briefing note. Cabinet estimated it spent $23 billion on pandemic relief in the tourism sector..“We are facing the spectre of an industry in deep crisis with many parts of it on the brink of collapse,” Marsha Walden, CEO of the Tourism Commission, wrote in a 2021-2025 Corporate Plan Summary tabled in Parliament. “The industry is now in the midst of an unprecedented situation.”.Walden in her report to MPs said 9% of Commission employees were laid off. She made no mention of executive bonuses. “Recovery is expected to take until 2025 at the earliest,” wrote Walden. “The long term impacts are troubling.”.A third of Canadian tourism operators plan to close permanently or sell the business, the Department of Industry said in an August 23 report. “A higher proportion of small and medium sized tourism enterprises have plans to sell, transfer or close their business in the next five years at 32% compared with 25% of businesses in all industries,” said the report Tourism Industries In Canada..Small businesses that account for most tourism operators suffered average net losses of almost $123,000 during the pandemic, said the industry department..“Bet there weren’t that many servers getting bonuses when restaurants closed down during the pandemic,” said the Taxpayer Federation’s Terrazzano. “Bureaucrats responsible for promoting tourism shouldn’t be receiving bonuses while the government wasn’t letting tourists travel to Canada.”
