Government abandons tourism in its hour of greatest need

Citing a Statistics Canada report that tourist travel from the United States had reached a 26–year low in August, PC Tourism Critic Ted Arnott questioned Premier Dalton McGuinty on October 20th about the failure of the Liberal Government’s tourism marketing efforts.

The Premier refused to answer the question, deflecting it to the Tourism Minister Jim Bradley.

“Based on the response given by the Minister, I’m not encouraged that new initiatives are forthcoming that would encourage the restoration of growth in our tourism sector,” Mr. Arnott said later.

“Last Spring, I called for the extension of the $128 million Tourism Recovery Program. That was our Conservative Government’s response to support Ontario’s tourism operators to recover from the SARS crisis,” he continued.

“Instead, the Government abandoned Ontario’s tourism sector, in its hour of greatest need,” Mr. Arnott said. “The Statistics Canada report confirms this.”