A crimson flag went up final week because the 2022 season of auto trade commerce exhibits prepares to take stage.

Three auto exhibits in Canada had been referred to as off because the quickly spreading omicron variant spawns a COVID-19 resurgence in Canada and elsewhere.

The Montreal Worldwide Auto Present, scheduled for January, the Canadian Worldwide AutoShow in Toronto, deliberate for February, and the Vancouver Worldwide Auto Present in March — all canceled final week within the face of alarming well being information — would have marked the return of the Canadian auto present circuit after a yearlong, pandemic-induced hiatus.

These choices got here down as auto corporations put together to ship executives to CES in Las Vegas in early January for that present’s return as a dwell occasion.

CES usually attracts attendees from around the globe to conduct enterprise and see new digital applied sciences. In January 2020, simply because the world was plunging into the pandemic, the present introduced collectively greater than 170,000 attendees, crowding Las Vegas exposition halls, lodges and airport terminals.

The Canadian cancellations additionally present a counterpoint to information final week that the state of Michigan will present a $9 million grant to assist the Detroit auto present get again in enterprise. Detroit hasn’t hosted an auto present since January 2019.

The Detroit Auto Sellers Affiliation canceled the scheduled June 2020 present, after which the September 2021 present due to coronavirus pandemic worries.

In an announcement to Crain’s Detroit Enterprise, a sibling publication of Automotive Information, DADA Govt Director Rod Alberts mentioned, “We’re happy state leaders have acknowledged the hardships and difficulties the present has confronted over the previous couple of years — hardships instantly associated to COVID.”

“Whereas every earlier present has funded the subsequent present — an almost three-year void led us to ask for direct assist from the state of Michigan,” Alberts mentioned. “This one-time funding will assist put the present again on sturdy monetary footing and go towards making a 2022 present the most effective one but — showcasing all issues Michigan has to supply on the automotive entrance.”

The auto present hiatus additionally has hampered the monetary stability of Detroit’s conference middle. In September 2020, the legislature appropriated $36 million in extra state help over six years for the Detroit Regional Conference Facility Authority to make up for losses sustained through the pandemic when the conference and occasions enterprise floor to a halt.

Luis Pereira, govt director of the Montreal present, informed Automotive Information Canada final week that rising COVID-19 case counts made the dwell occasion “irresponsible.”

“We had been actually assured that the occasion could be held this 12 months. Omicron got here alongside and muddied the waters. However it’s our company duty,” Pereira mentioned in an announcement.

The Toronto present would have adopted a month later. However Jason Campbell, the occasion’s basic supervisor, mentioned “the well being and wellbeing of our group must be our first precedence.”

Resulting from fast-rising COVID case counts via the primary half of December, the Ontario authorities reinstituted restrictions on indoor venues final week. Any indoor venue accommodating greater than 1,000 folks has been restricted to 50 % capability beginning Friday, Dec. 18.

Toronto organizers mentioned the present plans to return in 2023 for what, barring the pandemic, would’ve been its fiftieth 12 months.

“What has been clear over the previous few months in our discussions with our customers and our producer companions is how a lot all of them worth our in-person dwell auto present occasion expertise, and the way hungry all of them had been for it to return,” Campbell mentioned in an announcement.

Ticket gross sales for the Toronto present had not begun. That they had began in Montreal, with the move-in date lower than a month away. Refunds can be issued to all purchasers.

In the meantime, the British Columbia New Automobile Sellers Affiliation additionally cited the potential impression of the omicron variant and trade provide points in canceling the 2022 Vancouver Worldwide Auto Present.

“For the previous a number of months we have now been working diligently with our companions and main auto producers to plan a return of Western Canada’s finest attended client exhibition occasion,” affiliation President Blair Qualey mentioned in an announcement.

Regardless of eagerness for the present’s return after being scrapped this 12 months, he mentioned, “our high precedence continues to be the security of the general public, our vendor members and their workers.”

Qualey mentioned his group hopes to announce particulars quickly concerning the 2023 present, in addition to “new initiatives to attach customers with the new-car trade in 2022.”

Crain’s Detroit Enterprise contributed to this report.