Good afternoon. Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee, for this opportunity to speak with you today on behalf of Canada's tourism industry.

The tourism industry employs just over two million people, which represents about 10% of Canada's workforce, with work in over 274,000 businesses across Canada and employment in nearly every riding.

The sector is highly diverse. It comprises five industries with the types of jobs that cover the complete career span. It's a wide spectrum. We have jobs that require no Canadian work experience or proficiency in one of the official languages, for example. We also have jobs that require highly specialized credentials.

It's important to appreciate that the services provided by these workers are essential to Canadians and not just to the visitor economy. Youth make up 30% to 35% of the workforce. Most are getting their first foothold in the labour market through tourism employment. New Canadians represent about 30% of our workforce. Permanent, full-time workers account for nearly 70% of the workforce.

In 2023, 12% of the tourism workforce was seasonal or temporary and 6% were casual workers. This percentage of seasonal workers is down from 20% about a decade ago.

The recreation and entertainment industry has the highest percentage of seasonal workers within the five that we represent, at 24%. This is largely indicative of the nature of that sector, which includes a lot of indigenous tourism, outdoor recreation and entertainment. This is followed by the accommodation sector at 15%, and food and beverage services at 7%.

I want to note that seasonal workers may include workers who work for seasonal operations, which are open for limited periods, but they also include year-round operations for those that need workers to help address influx or high-demand periods.

Many seasonal tourism operators have expressed the need for an EI system that provides supplemental income to help sustain their workforce in off seasons. This primarily concerns rural and remote operators, of which there are many and most of which are small to medium enterprises.

In many cases, these tourism businesses are the economic and employment anchors of their community. Without them, the communities will see a further migration of the population to larger centres. Workers who are able to access EI as supplemental income in the off-season help keep these people in those rural and remote communities, so EI is important not just for the employment needs of tourism businesses that most often are the single anchor employer in the region, but is also essential to sustaining populations in those areas.

The tourism sector has not fully recovered from the pandemic. It's taken five years to get back to the 2019 levels, just in September of this year, but this falls short of meeting the needs. For example, this past summer, we had a shortage of 177,000 workers. Today, that's about 181,000.

There are many impacts or consequences of not having workers to meet the demand. There are lost revenues, for example. Without the necessary skilled workforce in the tourism, Canada is losing about $11 billion annually in potential revenue. Business closures, reduced ability to compete, reduced productivity and service standards, and reduced investment and innovation are all tied to not having these workers.

Last summer was especially difficult and in coming months, it will be more difficult. Reduced quotas on temporary foreign workers—who incidentally make up only about 1% of our workforce—and reduced numbers of international students and the hours they can work has added further constraint to the industry.

Other factors impacting attraction and retention in rural areas include housing, transportation, care services and even internet connectivity.

I mention this because it's important to think about the broader context. EI is one tool to help our businesses retain workers at a time when other options are simply not available. A well-designed EI system can complement the needs of our seasonal businesses.

Further considerations to policies are needed to enable seniors to work without penalties or clawbacks to their pensions or for people with disabilities to work without clawbacks to their disability benefits.

Enabling international students to work an additional 10 hours per week can make a big difference for our industry.

These are examples that may not be feasible, but they're all examples of things that can help our employers fill job vacancies in their seasonal needs, especially in rural and remote areas.

I would be remiss if I don't mention that with respect to EI, Restaurants Canada, which is one of the main national associations in our sector, is advocating for lower EI premiums—from 1.66% to 1.57%—to offset costs.

Indeed, in the first half of 2024, bankruptcies in the food service sector increased by 55% over 2023 and that's not telling the full story. Many businesses are shuttering permanently or underperforming locations without declaring bankruptcy.

To summarize, EI benefits are helpful in keeping tourism businesses afloat in rural and remote areas. In fact, they're essential. The diverse nature of our sector and the regional and sectoral differences suggest that EI premiums and policies need to be sufficiently flexible or tailored to the regional needs.

Finally, a holistic approach is needed to ensure that policies and programs are working together to optimize the workforce.

Thank you.

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