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Windspeaker.com
Updated: April 24, 2026 at 1:50 p.m. (Alberta).
Though he’s still hopeful better days are ahead, Keith Henry’s optimism has been challenged this year.
At a conference in Montreal back in May 2025, Henry, CEO and president of the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada (ITAC), beamed as he shared details of major funding that had been secured.
ITAC was scheduled to receive $35 million annually for seven years through the U.K.-based Passion Project Foundation. The foreign group of investors were interested in contributing significant resources to strengthen Indigenous tourism in Canada.
ITAC officials made operational and marketing plans on how to spend portions of their new private funding, but a major problem arose. Almost a full year later, none of that funding has arrived, said Henry.
In a letter to its members dated April 16, ITAC officials informed them of the dire situation.
“As a result of these delays, ITAC has had to make very difficult decisions, including restructuring operations, reducing staff, closing office space, and pausing marketing and development programs. We recognize the seriousness of these impacts on our members and partners but unfortunately had no choice,” the ITAC statement read.
In an interview with Windspeaker.com, Henry did his best to remain upbeat.
“It's not a very positive time,” he said. “But I remain hopeful. I do think the funding will come. I just wish I would have known it was going to be as long as it would have been and then we would have maybe made some corrective actions a little earlier. But I've got to work with what we're working with now.
ITAC held an International Indigenous Tourism Conference in February in Edmonton despite ITAC's revenue issues. While Henry said the conference was a success, the cash flow troubles left some service providers unpaid.
As reported by APTN on April 22, an Elder, who requested anonymity, was among many vendors who complained of slow or no payment. The Elder said she waited two months for payment for the service she provided the ITAC conference. But payment didn’t come from ITAC. It came from Indigenous Tourism Alberta (ITA).
Windspeaker.com reached out to ITA CEO Chelsey Quirk. In an emailed statement, she said the organization was aware of the concerns and recognized the impact the situation is having.
She confirmed ITA was one of several partners involved in the ITAC conference. As an independent organization, however, ITA was “not responsible for conference administration or vendor contracting and had no contractual obligation to pay vendors.”
She explained that ITA’s focus is on supporting Alberta-based members and maintaining stability within the sector.
“When made aware of the situation, ITA came forward to provide limited discretionary support for impacted Alberta based members and vendors,” said Quirk.
“We still have some bills we're going to have to pay coming out of the conference because we only have one bank account and with the conference cash flow was so tight,” Henry admitted. “Once you’re (planning for the conference) you can't really just back out. So, we maintained the conference. We held a very successful conference. But now we're still left with some of the bills to pay," Henry said.
ITAC began laying some staff members off and reducing operations in 2025. “And we took major steps in February to lay the bulk of the staff off,” he said.
ITAC employed about 30 people a year ago.
“We've taken the steps we have. It's just very, very unfortunate to see so many Indigenous professional staff and tourism people have to be off at a time when we should be hitting full stride here. So, I'm a little worried about what this year is going to mean for the industry,” said Henry.
“We had about 18 employees and the rest were sort of contractors that we had working with us,” Henry said. The majority of those jobs were held by Indigenous people.
Henry is now just one of four staff members still working at ITAC’s office in Vancouver. In an open letter from Henry released April 24, he said this group was working without pay. Just one other individual, who is on a contract, is still employed.
ITAC’s skeleton staff can’t come close to operating as normal.
“We can't maintain all the operations,” Henry said. “We've had to really put all of our marketing and development programs on hold until funding arrives. There's just no way to meaningfully engage and run operations with such a reduced staff.”
ITAC celebrated its 10th year of existence in 2025. The association had largely depended on federal funding. In his open letter of April 24, Henry said over the last three years core federal funding for ITAC has declined by more than 80 percent "to the lowest levels in our history."
"Had federal support continued at levels closer to previous years, ITAC would be in a very different financial position today, with the capacity to absorb unexpected challenges and continue delivering the programs our members rely on," wrote Henry.
“We've been requiring more investment for ITAC and the industry for quite some time now,” Henry told Windspeaker.com. He said the multi-year social impact investment from the Passion Project Foundation, focused on humanitarian support for Indigenous communities, was "really a saviour to us.”
The anticipated funding from the Passion Project Foundation, made available via anonymous donors, was the largest announced money ITAC had secured through the private sector.
“We've been trying to create our own source revenues through a variety of strategies and this social impact bond was one of them,” Henry said. “We've just seen declining public investments in Indigenous tourism. And it's too bad. It's a missed opportunity for the country.”
Henry said he’s in constant touch with folks from the U.K. foundation seeking any sort of update. He said the foundation is saying they have not yet received the money from their investors.
“We're online with them every day,” he said. “I have faith that they're going to honour the agreement. They're letting me know on a daily basis where things are at. And it sounds like we're very, very close to finally seeing some payments advanced. So that's what I'm hoping happens here in the next little bit. But until such time, we've had to take drastic austerity measures.”
Henry also said he wants ITAC to rehire staff members that it had to let go.
“We're not deviating from the plan of 2030 of making Canada the world global leaders in Indigenous destination, and all the marketing and development and partnership and leadership plans,” he said. “That absolutely remains the goal. But we have to manage as carefully as we can with really no resources right now. We just really have absolutely zero resources to maintain things right now.”
Henry feels there may be a positive update very soon.
“My hope is that they'll maintain their commitment to the agreement and they're telling me that they expect things to move in the next very short period actually,” he said. “We're hopeful that we can turn this around in the next, I would say, month.”
In the open letter, Henry said he was "truly sorry" for not being able to pay his service providers in a timely manner. "These delays have caused real financial strain and real personal hurt, and that is something we take very seriously....To anyone still awaiting payment, please know that you have not been forgotten and we will continue to communicate with you directly."