TICO went on to say that this will be a "disappointment" to industry members, but that TICO's decision to eliminate the elected seat was due to "expediency" and that the seat is currently vacant (albeit nominations, ballots and voting had already commenced).

ARTA Canada made the following observations:

1. Rather than remove an elected board seat from TICO registrants, TICO should have sought approval to increase the board from 15 to 16 members. The Minister's "request" to keep the board at 15 is not binding, and it is an affront to the democratic and fair representation process to reduce a seat which is elected directly by registrant stakeholders.

2. TICO had other options if it felt compelled to keep the board at 15 seats, namely seek approval to remove the CITC-appointed seat. CITC is a national (not Ontario) education provider and is neither a direct nor indirect stakeholder in TICO. Surely it would have made more sense to eliminate CITC's "nice-to-have" seat, while keeping actual stakeholders fully represented.

3. TICO had additional options at its disposal to keep the board at 15 seats, namely reduce the number of "patronage" appointments extended to ACTA (3 seats) and CATO (3 seats).

In addition, TICO has bundled a wide and varied set of changes to TICO's bylaws in a single resolution to be approved at the newly rescheduled Annual General Meeting on 24 September 2009. This type of "all inclusive" tactic is destined to fail adoption if members are forced to approve or disapprove a large slate of unrelated changes in a single proposal. TICO should separate the respective changes into individual resolutions so that members may vote their will on each respective amendment.

"This is TICO at its worst. It is completely unacceptable to reduce the number of elected seats, thereby diminishing the only really democratically chosen representation which TICO travel agencies and wholesalers have at TICO. This is a complete sham, and I, for one, will not allow TICO to get away with it!", said ARTA Canada President, Bruce Bishins, CTC.

ARTA Canada will be writing to the Chair of TICO reminding TICO that it can make no change to the TICO board composition until the bylaws have been approved by members and requesting postponement of the AGM until such time that a fair and equitable board composition plan can be developed. ARTA Canada will propose a joint meeting between TICO, the Ministry, and ARTA Canada so that lawful changes can be made and that members will not be subjected to any unilateral dictates of either TICO or the Ministry. ARTA Canada has always favoured a fully-elected TICO board of directors, one free from any patronage appointments.

"TICO has bylaws, and they must be respected", added Bishins.