Reviewed By the Health Authorities

The guidelines document has been vetted by WorkSafe BC, the BC Centre for Disease Control, and the Provincial Health Ministry. By having a set of standards that align with the requirements mandated by the health authority, it shows that we, the Meetings & Events industry, take the public health and risk mitigation seriously.

This is a critical step to demonstrate our commitment across the industry sectors and will prove competency to the provincial government and health authorities. It will ensure that our industry can conduct meetings and events in a safe, controlled, and effective manner.

The end goal is to encourage the government and PHO to loosen restrictions on meetings and events with a phased approach.

Industry Advocacies

We understand the anxiety among our community on what the future of the industry and our business will be. Many ongoing advocacies are happening, and we encourage you to get involved if you are interested and can do so. PCMA Canada West is committed to sharing with you any of the latest updates and progress from these works.

• BC Meetings & Events Working Group
  The Working Group is a voluntary, cross-section group formed in June. The immediate focus of the group is to develop safety restart guidelines to align our industry under one effort.The focus of the group now is rallying the industry together to support and adopt the guidelines. The group will engage with the BC government (Tourism Ministry) to advocate for a restart plan with a phased approach for Meetings and Events.If you are interested in being involved with the Working Group, please contact:Joanne Burns Millar
  [email protected]
  Direct: 778.233.7553.
• The Metro Vancouver Tourism & Hospitality Response & Recovery Task Force
  The Task Force is set up by Tourism Vancouver, but with representatives across the province. The Task Force has four (4) focus areas: 1) Impact Assessment; 2) Government Relations; 3) Issues Management & Communications; 4) Sector Recovery Strategy.Advocacy initiatives to date have been successful and can be viewed here.In May, an open letter to Minister Beare (Tourism) and Minister Mungall (Jobs, Economic Development & Competitiveness) on behalf of the Meetings & Events Industry had over 200+ companies endorse the letter.In July, a Recovery Stimulus Package Proposal was submitted to the Provincial government. A blanket request of $680M designed as a blanket request for the overall Tourism and Hospitality Industry was requested.

  To get involved, visit their website here.

• Destination Canada Business Events
  Destination Canada has regular meetings with Minister Joly (Economic Development) to discuss the marketing response & recovery strategy for Business events at the federal level. Updates can be found on their website here.
• Meetings Mean Business Canada (MMBC) & Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC)
  Both organizations have been working closely on national initiatives and are in regular communications with the Federal Government.You can learn more about MMBC and TIAC.

We believe that as an industry, having a collective voice is stronger and louder than unilateral efforts that may deflect attention. We would like to ask you to review and implement the guidelines and share your feedback with us. We also encourage you to get involved with these ongoing advocacy projects. If you have any questions, concerns, or ideas, please do not hesitate to share with us.

Let’s get business back on track together!

Best,