COVID-19.The province’s tourism task force on Wednesday released a 26-page report that urged the government to create a $95-million emergency grant fund to help more businesses stay open until additional federal support arrives, as well as immediately match its existing $50 million for the sector with at least another $50 million to help overall recovery.
It also called for $5 million to specifically help Indigenous tourism operators.“It is unlikely that demand will return before 2022 and it will take even longer for revenues and employment to return to pre-COVID levels,” the task force report reads.“Tourism is a microcosm of B.C.: It has big and small businesses, large revenues and small, a diverse population and a love of our province,.