A recently announced $15 million pandemic relief fund meant to help out BC tourism operators has come under fire for supposedly not including many people in the fund’s eligibility who need the money the most.
Back on Friday, this fund was announced by the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport, and it covers BC hotels and motels with more than 150 employees, tourism operators that have either a B.C. Parks permits or tenure in their current location and Indigenous owned resorts located on reserves that employ over 100 people.
However, the resident and CEO of the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada, Keith Henry, has sent out a statement saying that while this fund clearly has good intentions, a lot of Indigenous tourism businesses are unable to be apart of the fund since they are not on a reserve.
He also mentioned that tourism is the only employment available in certain BC Indigenous communities.
This fund was initially suggested back in September of 2020 to help out these tourism operators after business took a big hit because of the pandemic.
Comments