Soraya Martinez Ferrada

Indigenous tourism businesses faced barriers accessing government support over the pandemic, despite suffering from “disproportionately negative impacts” of the travel restrictions and economic chaos of that time, according to internal documents.

But as Rendez-vous Canada is taking place at the Edmonton Convention Centre, one of the biggest challenges Canada's tourism industry is facing is playing out in technicolour just a few hundred kilometres away: wildfires. 

Kay Matthews doesn't mince words when asked about the state of businesses fighting to survive in downtown cores across Ontario.