Cruise ships will be welcome back in Canadian ports as of November, federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra announced this morning at Victoria’s Ogden Point.
The ships will be permitted to dock in ports provided they follow health and safety procedures, which are still to be worked out with health organizations, he said. No details are available yet.
Resumption of cruise ships is dependent on the health situation at the time, Alghabra said.
Prior to today, the federal government had said that cruise ships would not be permitted in Canadian ports until at least Feb. 28, 2022.
“We are accelerating the timeline for resuming cruise ship activity,” the minister said.
This is the news that cruise lines and the local tourism sector has been waiting for. Tourism operators have suffered a major financial hit after losing the hundreds of thousands of ship visitors and crew who arrive in Victoria every year on cruise ships.
Although the Alaskan cruise ship season normally runs between spring and fall — meaning two seasons have been missed in Victoria — Alghabra speculated that some smaller vessels may call on Victoria this winter.
“As Canadians have done their part to reduce the spread of COVID-19, our government continues to work hard to safely restart and build back better,” he said.
The industry is worth more than $4 billion nationally and is responsible for 30,000 jobs, directly and indirectly.
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Greater Victoria’s tourism industry is optimistic that federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, set to make a cruise-ship-related announcement today, will signal that the ships will be welcome back starting in 2022.
Alghabra is set to speak at 10:30 a.m. at Ogden Point. No details were provided.
Ian Robertson, Greater Victoria Harbour Authority chief executive, said Wednesday that he has been asked to participate but has received no word of what is coming. “All I know is that the minister is in town to make an announcement regarding cruise. I’m hearing that it’s going to be positive.”
Large Alaska cruise ships were last in Victoria in 2019. The pandemic was declared before the start of the 2020 Alaska cruise season.
The harbour authority rallied support from a dozen partners last month to urge Ottawa to agree to allow the ships to dock here in 2022. The group included the B.C. Hotel Association, the Business Council of B.C., the B.C. Maritime Employers Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.
Announcing that cruise ships are welcome in 2022 would give the cruise lines certainty and allow them to plan their itineraries, Robertson said.
He is hoping that a back-in-business announcement will pour “lukewarm water” on Utah Senator Mike Lee’s goal to see the U.S. Senate permanently change American law to allow foreign-flagged cruise ships to travel directly between U.S. ports without touching a foreign country. If that happens, it would allow Alaska cruises — the backbone of the cruise ship stops in B.C. — to bypass Victoria and Vancouver.
The capital region’s tourism sector is among the hardest hit by the impact of COVID.
Large and small businesses have been hammered by the lack of visitors. The consortium of cruise-ship boosters said 17,000 jobs are at risk. If cruise ships are permitted in 2022, Robertson said businesses will get a “sense of hope” and the ability to plan for next year.
They have now faced two years in a row without cruise-ship visitors shopping, eating out and taking in local attractions.
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