No, with all due respect, there are some issues within the motion that may not be totally accurate. You're talking about customs charges on regular commercial flights. I don't think these are regular commercial flights that are coming in. That's one of the other things. They are charter flights coming in to the airport. On that I wouldn't want to argue. I simply don't have enough background on it, because I'm not involved in it, as Mr. Cullen mentioned.
Our other problem is that this was a signed agreement, as there are a number of other agreements. The fees went up because the size of the aircraft went up, and so did the number of people coming in. There are some other issues when the flights come in. If they come in within an hour or two of each other, then the customs agents can stay and do two flights, or whatever the case may be. But if they're seven hours apart, customs agents go somewhere else and then come back in. So there is certainly cost.
The other issue, which I know we have, and you have heard of it in the House, is that Moncton believes they should have it. Certainly in Ontario we've heard from a number of places. Collingwood, for instance, which is a ski resort, believes they should have somebody there who can clear international flights coming in from the U.S., particularly. We've heard it from Owen Sound. My friend at the end of the table thinks Brockville should have customs, because they have people coming in from the U.S.
At the end of the day, there are many unanswered questions around the table. We've been trying today to see if we could get somebody in from CBSA to explain where they are today with this whole thing. I understood from Mr. Ménard that he feels a time constraint, because somebody wants a decision by the first of June.
I honestly don't have a recommendation. If I thought for sure that we could get somebody to come in to give us more background on where CBSA is.... They're doing a core review that has been ongoing, and it deals with a number of small airports, this being one. Certainly Moncton is one you have heard folks from the other side ask about, and I think legitimately.
I understand what Mr. Cullen is saying. I don't know that they made the right decision or the wrong decision when they made it in about 1995, as he says, but the difficulty now is who gets free service and who pays for it. The decision was made back then, so a number are paying for it, but there are also a lot of other airports out there now that think they should have the same access as each of the others. I understand that maybe now that the contract has lapsed, it is not receiving international flights, but I am not certain of that.