What will you do for tourism? That question so far has drawn a blank from federal election candidates in B.C. who have yet to post quotes in support of tourism on COTA’s Web site. Silence is golden it seems as the country heads into the final weeks of the election. Federal hopefuls have been tongue tied on the subject of improving air service in Canada. COTA has not received a single reply to an air issues survey forwarded to over a hundred candidates last week. Only Conservative leader Stephen Harper has vowed to eliminate the $12 Air Travellers Security Charge. The only place where less talk seems to be working is foreign tourism destinations that keep putting their money where their mouth is. Canada continues to lose ground to competitors who are spending more and more on marketing their destinations. The Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) meanwhile has seen its budget shrink $5 million over the last two years. With the election around the corner, tourism interests across the country are weighing in with some very clear demands. The Tourism Industry Association of Canada has released Call to Action 2004, which calls for a $25 million budget increase for the CTC, a funding increase for programs that target tourism infrastructure development, and better transportation access, particularly access that integrates different modes. British Columbia tourism operators are being asked to contact and encourage their local candidates to complete the air issues survey and forward their quotes supporting tourism to cotaadmin@telus.net.

A coalition of 30 business groups, including COTA, released a poll June 16th that shows nearly two-thirds of Lower Mainland residents feel that TransLink should accept the provincial government’s offer to allow the Richmond-Airport-Vancouver (RAV) line to proceed by transferring the risk and responsibility for the undertaking to the Province. “TransLink board members have cited responsibility for financial risks as their primary concern,” B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell said at a sudden press conference from the floor of the international arrivals terminal of Vancouver International Airport last week. “The offer we’re making will provide for the Province to assume overall responsibility for the RAV project, and also see $170 million of the Province’s total $540 million commitment made available for improvements in the North-East sector.” COTA and other business groups will be addressing the TransLink board at its next meeting Friday June 18 in hopes that all Translink board members can be convinced of the RAV project’s wide-reaching investment benefits, congestion relief and job creation.