ACTA Meets with Ontario’s Minister Thompson on Compensation Fund Reform
As you know, ACTA has been conducting a lobbying campaign directed at the Ontario government throughout most of 2019, seeking relief from the many financial burdens of the Travel Industry Act and the Travel Industry Compensation Fund.
We would like to thank our members for joining in the letter writing campaign. Over 75 letters were sent to the Minister and to MPPs and this has definitely had an impact and been very helpful in raising awareness.
Last week, ACTA was present at a consultation on Bill 159, an Act to amend various statutes in respect of consumer protection, which addresses all of the Delegated Authorities in Ontario, of which TICO is one. It was a useful meeting as there were 11 MPPs on the committee and several government representatives also attending.
The message was delivered that the government is missing an opportunity to reform the consumer Compensation Fund and change the funding model. There were quite a lot of questions from MPPs and we are encouraged that the government is listening to our concerns on this issue. Since Bill 159 is still not law, there is hope that a change regarding the consumer Compensation Fund might still be included.
This week, ACTA President, Wendy Paradis had a meeting with Minister Lisa Thompson, Government and Consumer Services, and the Minister was very interested in ACTA’s feedback about the consumer Compensation Fund. She made the point that the government considers the consumer Compensation Fund to be a “very important tool for consumer protection”, and she urged ACTA to continue to bring our recommendations for reform forward throughout the Travel Industry ACT (TIA) consultation process. ACTA pointed out that if the Government indeed thinks the consumer Compensation Fund is very important, Travel Agencies are wondering why millions are being diverted from the consumer Compensation Fund each year to pay for TICO’s expanding operations? We also took the opportunity to stress the need for a consumer pay model and illustrated how the Quebec consumer-funded Compensation Fund model works.
As a next step, Minister Thompson’s team will set up a discussion between ACTA and the Minister responsible for reducing regulations, the Ministry of Small Business and Red Tape Reduction, and she stressed the importance of continued advocacy at the upcoming industry consultations by the travel associations and members.
Just before Christmas, ACTA was notified by the Ministry of the outline of some items that the government does intend to change in the Regulations of the Ontario Travel Act. So far, we do not have a date for consultations on the proposed changes to the regulations, nor full details on the changes. We expect the latter half of February is the likely timing and we will keep you updated as soon as we have more news. It will be imperative that as many members as possible get involved at that time. Stay tuned!
(L-R: Wendy Paradis ACTA President, Brett Walker CATO Chair, Heather Craig-Peddie Vice President, Advocacy and Member Relations)
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