New Federal Support “Unlikely” to Pass Before Ottawa Breaks for Holiday: Reports

Bill C-2 Intended to Replace Support that Ended in OCT

Federal parliament breaks for six weeks of holidays beginning this Friday, 17DEC, and now reports say the passage of crucial COVID support bills - including those specifically targeting the travel industry - are “unlikely” to be passed beforehand.

CityNews reports that “the fate of Bill C-2 — which would create targeted support programs for sectors hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and a new lockdown benefit for individuals thrown out of work due to the pandemic — seems particularly iffy.”

Part of Bill C-2 is the Tourism and Hospitality Recovery Program. As Open Jaw reported when Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland tabled it in NOV, “the bill would provide up to 75 per cent wage and rent subsidies to travel agencies who suffered a revenue decline of 40 per cent or more.”

Under provisions of the bill, wage and rent support would be backdated to 24OCT 2021, and will extend until 07MAY next year, although benefits will begin to be clawed back in MAR.

From the outset, ACTA had expressed its concerns that the bill doesn’t go far enough, as it appears to leave out independent advisors from the benefits of the program.

Nonetheless, earlier this month, ACTA urged the quick passage of the bill to save “thousands” of industry jobs, especially given the impact of the new, Omicron variant of the COVID virus on travel.

Now it appears the bill may not pass at all until well into the New Year.

Reports say that the Liberal minority government has not secured support from another party needed to ensure the bill’s passage. Both the NDP and Conservative parties say they’re opposed to C-2, and the Bloc Quebecois has made its support for the bill conditional on things like direct assistance for cultural workers and aid for other sectors, for which it says the government has not yet provided “solid guarantees.”

Furthermore, even with support of another party to pass Bill C-2 in the House of Commons, it would also have to be passed by the Senate before it can actually take effect. The report points out that none of the committee legwork to help secure passage of the bill in the Senate has begun.

That could mean that financial support outlined in the bill - intended to replace other support programs that expired in OCT - will not begin to help their intended ‘hardest hit’ sectors until just weeks before their benefits will start being clawed back in MAR.