International Trade committee  My vision would be that both sides of the border—the United States Border Patrol and DHS and CBSA—work hand in hand. It could be the start of a co-managed agreement whereby we look at setting a significant budget to advertise jointly, using a campaign that looks and feels the sam

International Trade committee  That's right.

International Trade committee  Do you mean in terms of dollars to be invested?

International Trade committee  It's going to have to be in the tens of millions of dollars. I'm thinking that at least $20 million to $30 million would need to be invested. We haven't done any work with marketing agencies to see what would work effectively, but with the number of dollars being used right now,

International Trade committee  The effect would be devastating. The amount of media attention that goes around the world.... The media will pick up on it. You can be sure of it. If there's a negative occurrence during the Olympics that happens to be two-, three-, four-hour lineups at the border, it's going to

International Trade committee  What we're referring to is actually a communications strategy that would be issued through another department. The CTC's budget, which was around $75 million, did receive a boost in the last budget, which was helpful for emerging markets and also some domestic marketing, which wa

International Trade committee  We appreciate that their major responsibility is security and making sure that people don't enter the country improperly. Three words: Welcome to Canada. Just start off the conversation with that and it makes a heck of a difference. That's all we're asking.

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you today. First, let me thank the committee for the opportunity to appear before you today to help situate the tourism sector within your investigation of trade relations between Canada and the United States. As

Industry committee  The committee should appreciate that the Canadian Tourism Commission is responsible for presenting Canada's brand in foreign markets in nine countries. But they do that with leverage and with collaboration with other marketing organizations in Canada, including Tourisme Québec, Q

Industry committee  Michele, do you have that number? I think it's about $50 billion out of the $70 billion. It's about two-thirds of the amount.

Industry committee  I'm trying to recall the average. I think the average rebate was just over $100, the refund. We have those numbers and we can submit them to the committee.

Industry committee  The government came out, when they made the decision, and said that only 3% of visitors were using it, which was wrong. They were counting babies and couples in that. Two-year-olds don't fill out rebate forms. It was 13% when you do it properly, and that's 13% of a program that

Industry committee  The Japanese market certainly has been affected by the number of seats available. The flights from Japan have been running at close to capacity. As we said earlier, we need more lift, more capacity, out of all the Asia-Pacific countries.

Industry committee  I can't answer that question. Maybe that's best directed to Air Canada. They have so many aircraft in service, and they will allocate them to the most profitable routes. I'm sure we'd expect that of any company, and I'm sure their shareholders are looking to them to put them on t

Industry committee  Well, it's important that it comes back, firstly. There was no consultation. Initially it was a decision that was made that surprised us all. Obviously it is important. We're one of the only countries in the world with a value-added tax that doesn't give it back to their visitors