Yes, thank you.
Good afternoon, Minister Lebel. Welcome to the committee.
The Federation of Canadian Municipalities has proposed “cut my commute time” funding, asking for a direct transfer to municipalities and provinces for public transit. As you know, this is a top priority for the Big City Mayors' Caucus. Mayors, whether they be from Calgary, Vancouver, Quebec City, Montreal, Halifax, or Toronto, are all asking for help to cut the commute time.
Within I think two days after they made the request, you were in the media saying, no, you do not support dedicated transit funding. My question is, why?
I'll ask my second question, and then you can answer both.
The second question has to do with our competitiveness. Canada loses five million passengers—Canadians—who go to the U.S. to fly out of the U.S. because they find that the cost of flying in Canada is too expensive. One of the reasons for it, the airlines have been telling us, is the high airport fees and all the funds that are being charged to the airports and to the airlines. As a result of this, airlines in Canada are not as competitive as those in the States, which means we lose millions of dollars of tax revenue and thousands of jobs.
What is your plan for dealing with that lost revenue and Canadians having to drive south in order to fly anywhere?