Ontario Travel Industry Act – Government Omits Key Priority

The Ontario Travel Industry Act (TIA) is a key issue on ACTA's advocacy agenda. There are many important components to the TIA, which affect our travel agency members, and for over a year now, ACTA has diligently contributed to the TIA Review at all government and stakeholder levels. One of our priority messages to the Ontario Government has been "if there is a travel compensation fund in Ontario for consumers, then the consumer that the fund is protecting should be making financial contributions to the fund." ACTA is extremely disappointed that this critical element, consumer contribution, is noticeably absent from the new draft legislation - Bill 166.

ACTA's message to the government has been strong throughout the review process in stating that the need for a Consumer Contribution/Pay Compensation Fund is vital for the success of the industry in Ontario, which employs tens of thousands of Ontarians. We emphasized that if the province were to adopt a consumer contribution/pay model, then the financial burden of the fund would be spread over millions of contributors, rather than a few thousand registrants and the consumer would be adequately protected in cases of major failures, as per the wishes of the consumer and the Ontario government. This point was supported by a recent Deloitte Study, an actuary analysis and assessment of the Ontario Travel Compensation Fund. Click here for a copy of the report.

In late November, ACTA President Wendy Paradis, Vice President Heather Craig-Peddie and Board members Cyrus Rustamji, CTM and Richard Vanderlubbe travelled to the Ontario Legislative Assembly for a hearing with the Standing Committee on Social Policy to discuss the importance of a consumer pay model and reinforced the positive aspects of Quebec's consumer contribution model. ACTA explained to the Committee members made up of Liberal, Conservative and NDP members of parliament, that the current funding model is unsustainable, with the extra protection the Government put in place for coverage of end supplier failures in 2001. ACTA also learned throughout the review undertaken over the past year that consumers cannot be guaranteed protection from their credit card companies or insurance policy in the event of the insolvency of a major supplier. The Canadian Association of Tour Operators (CATO) also reinforced the message of the importance of consumer contributions in a presentation to the Committee the same day.

Following the hearing, Wendy Paradis commented, "ACTA is pleased to have had an opportunity to address the Legislative Assembly and speak to members of provincial parliament about the large gap in the Travel Industry Act and share how critical it is to get the consumer involved in the funding of the Compensation Fund, the same consumers the Fund was set-up to protect!"

As this Bill makes its way through the legislature process, ACTA will remain tenacious. With the looming election in 2018, advocating for consumer contributions will prove challenging in the short term. However, due to positive feedback we received throughout our advocacy efforts over the past year, ACTA will continue to actively lobby the government and other key stakeholders, with the goal of influencing change that is in the best interest of our travel agency members and their clients. We will update you with next steps and progress over the coming weeks.

Sincerely,

Wendy Paradis