The Automotive Industries Association (AIA) of Canada has announced its decision to cancel its National Conference amidst the growing concerns over the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.

The conference was scheduled to be held at the Delta Hotels Toronto Airport & Conference Centre in Toronto, Ontario on April 28-29.

The Annual General Meeting which was to be held along with the National Conference will now be taking place online. The association is currently preparing the details of the digital format of the AGM. When finalized, the details will be announced.

“This has been both an easy and difficult decision to make,” said Jean-François Champagne, President, AIA Canada. “From the standpoint of keeping our members and the community at large both safe and healthy, we feel this is the best way to go. At the same time, we are disappointed not to be able to bring our members together in celebration of our industry. I want to thank all of the members and sponsors who showed so much interest and support, and to the staff at AIA Canada who worked so hard planning the event.”

“As a not-for-profit association, we rely on the revenue generated by events such as this to keep AIA Canada working in support of our members. Like with many organizations, these kinds of measures taken to help guard the health and safety of the public will have an impact on our ability to operate in the months to come. For that reason, I am asking those who have already paid conference fees or sponsorship associated with our conference to consider donating them to AIA Canada to allow us to continue to deliver the services we’ve been providing to our members for over 75 years.”

The reservations of all those who were interested in attending the event and have already made bookings within the conference room block at the Delta Hotels will be cancelled automatically. AIA Canada has requested those who have made reservations separately to go ahead and cancel them.

AIA Canada members may contact the association’s membership team for a refund in case they have already registered for the National Conference. The processing time for the refunds is between 5 to 10 business days. Any other inquiries regarding cancellations can be sent to [email protected].