Premier Doug Ford’s cuts are now hitting tourism-boosting efforts for Toronto and Ottawa, with agencies recently saying they’ve been told their provincial funding is being eliminated entirely.

According to Tourism Toronto, it faces a cut of $9.5 million — about one-quarter of an annual budget that includes $28.6 million from a tax collected on local hotel stays. Ottawa Tourism says it is losing $3.4 million.

Toronto welcomed 44 million visitors last year. Some 15.5 million tourists and convention-goers stayed overnight, one-third of them visitors from outside Canada.

Tourism Toronto, the official sales and marketing organization for leisure travel and meetings, says the visitors annually pump a total of $9 billion directly into the local economy.

An Ontario Ministry of Tourism official notified Tourism Toronto about two weeks ago, suggesting there would be some transitional funding for this year before the grant disappears, and that a new provincial tourism strategy is coming this spring or summer, according to Tourism Toronto.

“We don’t have any other information to go on right now,” said Andrew Weir, Tourism Toronto’s executive vice-president of destination development, adding his agency has sales staff and marketing staff or representatives in eight countries.

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“It will have a real impact,” Weir said of the cut. “We have to evaluate in which markets we can no longer promote Toronto, which major conventions and events we can’t bring to the city.

“Having just had one phone call so far and no further details, we can’t make any decisions yet until we get more information.”

The cut would mean Toronto Tourism would stop providing sales and support for Mississauga and Brampton tourism officials because the funding was regional, Weir added.

Ottawa similarly provides support to the Prescott-Russell area.

“Until their new tourism strategy is released, we really won’t have a full understanding of the net change of budget cuts and any potential new funding programs,” said Ottawa Tourism’s Jantine Van Kregten.

In addition to the Toronto and Ottawa areas, the provincial ministry has funded 11 other regional tourism organizations across Ontario to the tune of about $40 million per year.

A spokesperson for Michael Tibollo, Ontario’s minister of tourism, culture and sport, has not yet responded to the Star’s request for full details of the cut and if the new strategy will replace any funding.

Weir said tourism investments have paid huge dividends across many sectors, not just hotels.

Some 25,000 visitors from around the world will this month descend on Toronto for Collision, North America’s fastest growing tech conference. All three levels of government, Tourism Toronto and Exhibition Place won a bid to host the annual conference for the next three years.

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“Investors, leaders in the high-tech industry are coming to see our local entrepreneurial tech sector exposed to the world,” Weir said. “I’d like to think the (provincial) government sees the opportunity in tourism, and that they will make some smart new investments,” including new tourist draws.

The cut is one of several, including funding to municipalities for public health, child care and transit operations, in the Ford government’s April budget, details of which have emerged slowly.

Toronto Mayor John Tory revealed the change Tuesday during a news conference with Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie, chair of the Large Urban Mayors Caucus of Ontario, where they both criticized the Ford government for deep cuts with no consultation.

“I think that’s bad for Ontario, ultimately, certainly bad for Toronto,” Tory said of cancellation of the tourism grants. “We’re going to have to find a way to make certain Tourism Toronto can carry on attracting tourists and conventions.”

Guthrie said mayors of other cities stand with Toronto in asking Ford to halt a war of words, and the cuts, and sit down with municipal leaders to see how they can help the province cut its deficit.

“These cuts will hurt real people,” Guthrie said, noting municipalities, which by law are not allowed to run deficits, face choices of tax hikes, cutting important services or delaying important projects to deal with cuts which are retroactive to April 1.

Tory said Ford’s cuts will cost Toronto “well north of $100 million” this year alone.

In a statement issued after Tory and Guthrie spoke, Ford continued attacking Toronto spending, saying the city can eliminate waste and absorb the provincial cuts without making any cuts to services for residents.

Among spending on the block in Toronto are breakfasts for hundreds of children in poverty, more than 6,000 subsidized child care spaces and transit funding that will total about $100 million per year.

“If John Tory spent as much time going through the city’s finances as he does worrying about the colour of the Toronto sign, he would be able to find some efficiencies and deliver some value for taxpayers’ dollars,” Ford wrote.

Tory’s Twitter account has announced, five times in the past week, why the TORONTO sign in Nathan Phillips Square was lit a particular colour.

Reasons include maternal mental health day, community living for disabled people, honouring Canadian naval heroics in the Second World War, a Toronto Rock lacrosse playoff game and children’s mental health week.

David Rider is the Star's City Hall bureau chief and a reporter covering Toronto politics. Follow him on Twitter: @dmrider

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