We would suggest that it isn't a cost saver; it's actually going to end up costing the government money. The numbers they're using...the $78.5 million is really only a part of the issue. That takes up the revenues and costs dealing with the individual travel. No account was taken of the meetings, convention business, or the tour and travel. Those are the most important segments of the whole visitor rebate program, and those numbers never touch your books.
We believe the real number is somewhere around $1.28 billion that is used in the visitor rebate program. Every country that has a VAT system in the tourism industry offers rebates, so what you've done is to give us an automatic 6% increase in our costs, and I can tell you, our competitors are already using it. It hit the web the next day: Canada's pricing just went up 6%. Not only is it going to cost you that direct revenue, but it is also going to cost in lost opportunities. In terms of jobs, in terms of the taxes on goods and services of those visitors who would have chosen to come to Canada, they are not going to come any more because this is such a competitive business. Every country in the world has identified tourism as being clean, as being green; it's an export industry. What you've done is make us uncompetitive, and you've done it with numbers that aren't even correct.
We would ask you seriously to take a look at it. Wherever the numbers came from, they're wrong. The impacts are way more significant and the numbers are much higher than you've been led to believe.