The federal government still has not answered our request to meet
To our members, partners and the Indigenous tourism community:
This week PAX News published an in-depth feature by Michael Pihach on the current state of the Indigenous tourism industry and ITAC. I spoke with PAX at length and did not soften anything. The piece lays out plainly where we are: an organization that built Indigenous tourism into one of Canada’s tourism success stories, now insolvent, with every staff member laid off and no office in operation.
The numbers in that article are the numbers we have been living. Combined federal investment through Indigenous Services Canada, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada and Destination Canada has fallen from roughly $11.9 million to zero over three years. For 2026-27 our federal funding stands at $0.
The cost of that decision will not stay inside our walls. As I told PAX, the damage reaches across the whole tourism economy and into communities far beyond our membership. Please read the full article and share it. The more Canadians who understand what is at stake, the harder this is to ignore.
Award-winning work that no one else can do
There is real pride to share this week as well. The International Indigenous Tourism Conference 2025, held in Montreal, has won another national honour: the Canadian Event Award for Best Conference, Social and Community Impact. It places IITC among the very best events produced anywhere in the country.
That recognition belongs to a team. I want to thank our event partner, e=mc² events, whose craft and commitment helped make IITC what it is, along with the ITAC staff, volunteers and partners who poured themselves into that gathering.
I raise it for a reason beyond pride. This is what ITAC does for the industry. We convene the national gathering where Indigenous operators meet buyers, partners and one another, and we produce work that competes and wins on a national stage. No one else holds this mandate. If ITAC falls, there is no national, Indigenous-led body left to do this award-winning work.
Still no answer from the federal government
What makes this harder to accept is the silence. On June 19, our Chair, Marilyn Yadultin Jensen, wrote directly to the Honourable Rechie Valdez, Secretary of State for Small Business and Tourism, to follow up on a meeting request first submitted in early May. As of today there has been no response.
Her letter sets out the pattern plainly: the repeated attempts we have made to engage, the loss of core funding since 2023, and our concern that the government has been meeting with administrative staff rather than the elected Indigenous leaders accountable to this industry. PAX reached out to the Minister’s office and to Indigenous Services Canada and received no reply by publication.
We are not asking for special treatment. We are asking for the same engagement any national tourism sector would expect, and so far we are met with nothing.
Please keep the letters coming
This is where you have made the difference, and it is where I am asking you to keep going. The letters arriving at ITAC and copied to the Minister’s office are on the record, and they are the reason this issue cannot quietly be set aside.
If you have not yet written, please write to the Honourable Rechie Valdez and tell her what Indigenous tourism means to your community and what would be lost if ITAC cannot continue. If you have already written, pass this along to a colleague, a supplier or a partner and ask them to add their name.
Hundreds of letters have now reached ITAC and the Minister’s office, and we have shared many of them over the past few weeks. Here are a few more of the voices on the record:
- Melanie Gamache, Borealis Beading, Manitoba: “organizations like mine would not have had the same opportunities for growth, visibility and success without the support and leadership of ITAC.”
- Alana Pyrch, Manitoba: “It would create a domino effect across the Indigenous tourism sector, affecting artists, cultural workers, entrepreneurs, remote communities, tourism operators and Indigenous-led cultural spaces.”
- Deneen Allen, Firecircle, Ontario: “Canada needs one unifying voice for Indigenous tourism, much like Destination Canada provides to the world.”
- Sjanneke Geertsma, Little Travel Europe: “Indigenous tourism is no longer simply an optional activity. It has become one of the most meaningful and memorable aspects of their journey.”
These voices speak for many. Your letter adds to a record that is already changing the conversation, and it helps make sure there is a next chapter for all of us to write.
With determination,
Keith Henry
President and CEO
Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada
Send your letter of support to:
The Honourable Rechie Valdez, Secretary of State (Small Business and Tourism)
House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6