Good morning, everyone.
I apologize. I'm not likely to be as eloquent as some of the other speakers here. I'm just some simple farm kid from the Prairies, but I did want to speak today about the luxury tax that's been proposed to be imposed on aircraft.
I grew up in the Prairies. My introduction to aviation was from my grandfather who was actually a flying doctor in Manitoba. He had a very modest house and a very modest car and a very modest manner about him. He chose to spend his money to have a four-seat single-engine airplane so that he could travel from Winnipeg to outlying communities and provide very beneficial consultation services for his gall bladder surgery process to outlying communities in Manitoba.
That was how I was introduced to aviation. My very earliest form of joy of aviation was travelling with him while I was visiting in the summer and spending time in places like Gimli and Baldur, Manitoba, travelling around at the airport and going to the local ice cream shop, but I at no time thought he was a big jetsetter. That was not his style. He was a pretty low-key guy.
That's really what general aviation is and I think the concern is that the budget may have lost sight of that situation, especially with the $100,000 lower limit. The impact on the economy of the GA community is quite extensive. I was recently on a trip where I went to see a client in Maple Creek and then a client in Regina and a client in Saskatoon. That trip normally takes about three and a half days in the car from Calgary, with obviously a much higher carbon footprint, being on the road, and then there are the dangers of travel, not at this time of year but certainly in the winter. I was able to do that trip in my own airplane in less than two days and be back in time to pick my young boys up from school and have supper with them on day two. Not only that, but I bought fuel in Maple Creek, I purchased fuel in Regina, I rented a hotel room in Regina, took two cab rides in Regina, one to the hotel and one back, as well as some FBO services in Saskatoon.
The economic impact of what would be considered a very short trip in my business but a very essential one in an effort to see my customers, who can't readily move their aircraft to my location for review and sale, was critical. The reason we do that and the reason I own the aircraft for that business purpose—I am by no means rich and my bank account can definitely attest to that situation—is that our realtor wouldn't ask us to bring our house over to have the pictures taken and the sale done. That is really how we treat aviation for my clients. We can't reasonably expect them to travel to us in the airplane. For the most part, we need to travel to them.
There are a lot of other underlying items, like flight training. The large jets that we were lucky enough to travel on a couple of years ago, prior to the COVID pandemic, of course, are flown by students who fly 40-year-old to 50-year-old aircraft in their training regime. The imposition of this tax is going to limit flight schools' ability to purchase new and more up-to-date equipment to train our new pilots, to the detriment to our aviation industry and the aviation industry worldwide.
One of the other major issues with this is that this tax will affect agricultural aircraft, which are critical, especially in wet years, to ensure that Canada is still feeding the world, as we are known as the breadbasket. Our aging fleet is really getting to that point where $100,000 doesn't buy you much of an airplane anymore. A brand new Cessna 172, such as you would see for training purposes, is upwards of $500,000 plus Canadian dollars. It's going to be very difficult for flight training units to bring in new and updated equipment if there's a large tax imposed on that piece of equipment. They're eventually going to have to slough that down onto their students who are going to end up having to pay more for flight training, which is going to cause a ripple effect of a reduced workforce in the aviation industry.
It's important to note that as much as people say that people with airplanes are rich folks, which is certainly the case sometimes, no question, most of my clients are pretty normal people. They're farmers. They're ranchers. They're business people. They own a small shop. They've just chosen aviation as their given enjoyment.
I have friends with multiple vehicles and half-million dollar houses and cottages at the lake and ski boats, and they're called very successful. I don't have any of that, but I have an airplane and I'm called a rich guy. We don't think that's fair, that Canadian aviators and owners should be brushed with the same stroke as somebody who flies around in a $150-million gold-plated jet.
Thank you very much.