New Association - Canadian Independent Travel Advisors - Advocating for CERB Extension

It’s no secret that travel agents have been severely impacted by the COVID pandemic, especially Independent travel advisors who work on 100% commission.

While CERB has been recently extended by the Federal Government by two months to August, a group of Canadian independent travel agents are banding together and forming a coalition to advocate for an extension until December.

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TravelPulse Canada spoke exclusively with Judith Coates of The Travel Agent Next Door and Brenda Slater of Beyond the Beach, who are leading the charge and inviting independent agents to join them in asking the government for help.

Commission based agents are paid not at the time of booking, but at the time of their clients’ travel. With the current pandemic and travel advisories in place, clients are booking travel for months, even more than a year out, which means agents are working now, but won’t receive their commission for many more months.

“Our sector needs to have the extension,” explains Coates. “We’re not just sitting and collecting the CERB and saying we don’t want to work. We are doing the work (planning travel) but not able to get paid as we are commission.”

“We have been reachable by our clients 24/7 if necessary,” says Slater. “We’ve been hitting as many balls out of the park as we possibly can, but in the meantime, we’ve been constantly adjusting to policy changes and working 40 hour work weeks. As outside agents, we want to ensure our clients come back to us.”

Coates and Slater have started an association called the Canadian Independent Travel Advisors in order to lobby for the changes. Believed to be the first of its kind, they’ve met with their MP (Simcoe-North) Bruce Stanton who is working towards getting an audience for Independent Travel Advisors with the Federal Finance Committee and the Federal Transport Committee.

Independent agents are encouraged to join the Canadian Independent Travel Advisors Facebook group and to download the letter template, and send to their local MPs.

“We hope we can encourage other independent agents to join us and together we can gain momentum for changes,” added Coates.