OAA’s highly unusual award...

TORONTO—How often does one trade association present another association with an award? It’s unusual, but that’s exactly what happened at the Ontario Accommodation Association’s Honours Banquet held March 15, following the OAA AGM at the Hilton Suites Toronto-Markham.

The association in question is Retail Association of Canada, which received the Butler Award, the OAA’s highest honour. OAA chair Mark Covey presented Diane J. Brisebois, the retail association’s president and CEO with the award, which consists of an engraved clock.

OAA chair Mark Covey presents the OAA’s Butler Award to Diane Brisebois, president and CEO of Retail Council of Canada.

Retail Council of Canada went far beyond its own association interests by spearheading the movement with the highly provocative title—StopStickingItToUs! Led by Retail Council of Canada, the StopStickingItToUs Coalition is a group of Canadian associations, backed by over 250,000 businesses from coast-to-coast, that is standing up to the big credit card companies to put a stop to skyrocketing fees.

Its members include 30 associations in many areas, including bookselling, oil heat and tourism.

Covey thanked Brisebois for her hard work on the coalition over the past two years.

“We decided to be in-your-face and un-Canadian,” said Brisebois, describing the origins of the coalition and its name, adding that the group will continue sticking it to “them”, specifically Visa and MasterCard.

While the OAA honours her, Brisebois said she is not similarly received in other organizations. “One of the credit card companies had my photo in the lunch room and allowed their staff to throw darts at it,” she said.

Robert Jackson of Harco received the Significant Service Award, and was honoured for 30 years as an allied member of the OAA. Jackson, who has been working in the laundry industry since 1971, recalled the days when an enterprising Peterborough hotelier had the inspired idea of using one large commercial machine to handle all the soiled linen his motel generated in a day, rather than several small machines. He thanked OAA president Bruce Gravel for his “leadership, support and guidance.”

In what sounded like a campaign speech, even though the Ontario election is likely a year and a half away, provincial opposition leader Tim Hudak revealed to the dinner guests that he had once worked as a border inspector at the Fort Erie Peace Bridge, giving him a unique perspective on cross-border traffic.

He entered politics, and was Ontario’s Minister of Culture, Tourism and Recreation during the dark days following 9/11. At that time, his government provided $14 million to encourage travellers to stay in the province, and did a rubber tire survey.

“We worked together, and got great advice from the [hospitality] sector.” Looking towards 2010, after a tough 2009, the industry faces unique and hard challenges, Hudak said, adding that he hoped they could work together again.

Hudak then outlined his plans for the tourism industry including:

• targetted tax relief rather than corporate welfare schemes;

• tax relief for small businesses including a one-year health tax holiday;

• a small business jobs plan; and

• an energy policy that includes an expanded role for nuclear and a commitment to keeping long-term energy rates affordable.He called this plan “achievable, practical and affordable.”