Toronto, 21 April 2009: ARTA Canada called today for the immediate resignation of Michael Pepper, President, CEO, and Registrar of the Travel Industry Council of Ontario (TICO).
The mishandling of the demise of Conquest Vacations, which caused unnecessary anguish, cost, and ruined vacations for thousands of travellers, is all but déjà vu of a similar lack of regulatory oversight and governance in TICO's handling of the 2006 One Step Travel failure.
Both One Step Travel and Conquest are indicative of TICO’s advance awareness of financial shortfalls and other compliance irregularities which should have resulted in immediate suspension of the travel companies’ registration to operate in Ontario. Instead, TICO gave both firms unwarranted latitude in continuing to operate, ultimately involving the closure of both businesses and payouts from the Ontario Travel Industry Compensation Fund of epic proportions.
“It is indeed ironic that TICO holds travel agents responsible to fully disclose any factors which may impact the sale of travel services, but that TICO does not hold itself to the same standards of transparency and disclosure”, said ARTA Canada President Bruce Bishins.
Bishins is coordinating a task force of travel agents and travel wholesalers, empanelled at the 2008 TICO Annual General Meeting, to investigate TICO’s handling of the One Step Travel matter where TICO admitted, in court documents, that One Step Travel was late in filing all ten of its financial statements, had a lack of sufficient working capital in seven of its ten years, and in three of those years had negative working capital.
TICO refused to provide the task force with any cooperation, and eight months later, bowing to mounting public pressure from the task force, TICO announced it will seek its own “third party review” of the One Step Travel matter. ARTA Canada was advised last week that Ontario’s Ministry of Finance, Internal Audit Division, will conduct the review.
Frustrated by TICO’s lack of cooperation, in February 2009, the task force also wrote to Minister Harinder Takhar of the Ministry of Small Business and Consumer Services, only to be told that the Minister had no time to meet with the task force. Bishins advised the media that if the Ministry will take no direct interest in resolving the problems at TICO that Bishins will take the matter to the opposition parties in the Ontario Legislature for their consideration. Members of the opposition parties made it quite clear to Minister Takhar yesterday that his Ministry was woefully remiss in overseeing TICO.
“I hope that it is not lost on anyone that TICO has been asking Ontario travel agencies to instill greater confidence in consumers who buy travel through Ontario travel agencies by requiring agencies to take questionably useful exams to prove their knowledge of the Travel Industry Act and its regulations. That confidence was effectively dealt a black eye by TICO itself which not only seems incapable of enforcing its own regulatory oversight, but also is doing nothing to resolve its own ineptitude”, added Bishins.
ARTA Canada, therefore, calls for Mr. Pepper to step down, and for Minister Takhar to take personal charge of a full review of TICO, the composition and effectiveness of the TICO board, and the tightening of procedures when financial non-compliance of registrants has been determined.
