It's going to be a little different across Canada. Those of you who are from different parts of Canada might not see it the same way in your local surroundings, but every airport and every port is different. Shared capitalization conversations are quite complex, and they have different implications depending on where you live and the status of the entity in question.
We have a very strong airport, a very strong balance sheet. We have a port here that is one of the most efficient operating on the planet. As to the benefits associated with privatization—and bear in mind that this is coming from a free enterprise oriented organization—we actually believe we've already received the benefits that would come from privatization at the port of Vancouver, which has been recognized by all kinds of independent folks as being very efficiently run. Changing the share capital of the port, for example, would actually cause prices to go up in a very competitive international shipping market. That has phenomenal impact in the Lower Mainland, where over 100,000 people are directly or indirectly employed by the port of Vancouver within about five kilometres of the water itself. It's a pretty big deal.
To your question on YVR, with the greatest of respect to the idea, the value of $4.5 billion to $6 billion, which is what I understand the airport is assessed at, is not the government's money. That value has been created through passenger traffic and through airport fees that have been charged to renters, to the surrounding real estate folks, and to the airlines. There have been modest contributions by the federal government of different political stripes over the last 25 years since it went into this really interesting, unique community leadership model. With greatest pride, the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade was a key proponent of that. We have a board seat on the airport to this day because of our role in taking it to this new model. It has been the number one airport in North America for six out of the last seven years, and number two in the world.
It is a shining example of how well it works, so we're very cautious of anything that would cause our airport to get off the track of being best in class on an internationally recognized level. Changing the share capitalization of YVR could absolutely do that, because the only way a private investor would be interested would be to reap a return, which by definition means the costs of running that airport go up, and that would get passed along to passengers and airlines.