Melanie Joly, federal minister of tourism, was in Niagara Falls today announcing a new nationwide tourism strategy committee. It will be comprised of business owners, entrepreneurs and those in the tourism sector, including Frank McKenna who has been named chair.

McKenna, deputy chair of TD bank and former Ambassador to the U.S. says the primary focus of this new committee is jobs.

“The tourism sector creates jobs for high school students, university students, creates jobs for people who are working on their skills and in other areas, and for seniors as well who are looking for a job to supplement their income. We want to grow the sector because when there is a tourism boom, this is the biggest industry and it’s increasing by 4% per year”

Minister Joly says 1 in 10 jobs in Canada are in the tourism sector, which represents 2% of our GDP.

The committee will be going coast to coast to the nation’s largest tourism hot spots like Niagara Falls and will be asking tourists what they want and need.

The new committee also includes Katie Teller, the Chair of RBC and former CEO of Four Seasons, and Jerry Dias President of UNIFOR.

But the Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling it ‘puzzling’, saying we already have a tourism association called Destination Canada. They also say the announcement may be linked to the fact that there’s an election next year and are concerned about the additional cost to taxpayers with little return.

There is also no word on how long the committee will take to gather information or if there’s a deadline to have a new tourism strategy in place.