Players in the tourism industry in this part of the country tend to find themselves competing with themselves.
There are some stark numbers in a new report from StatsCanada on investment in the tourism industry. They looked at the contribution made by both the private sector and government.
And it turns out Ottawa disproportionately favours Quebec and Ontario on this one.
While noting that the private sector in Ontario puts up the most money in real terms – not surprising given their population – but the federal government put up 39 per cent of the money invested in Quebec’s industry in 2021.
That’s the highest percentage of all the provinces. Ontario was next at 32 per cent. Compare that to Saskatchewan at 14 per cent, about one-third of the flow into Quebec in percentage terms with only PEI and New Brunswick showing lower levels.
In fact, we don’t see much money from any level of government when funding capital for tourism. The private sector in Saskatchewan kicks in more than 80 per cent of the capital flowing into the industry. In Quebec, it is only 30 per cent as industry here goes head-to-head with public treasuries in other regions.
