Thank you.
Madam Chair and members of the committee, good morning. The safety and security of our passengers and workers is the number one priority of airports, which is why we thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today on a topic that is extremely important to airports. The screening of airport workers, or as we describe them in the industry and as you've seen today, non-passengers, has been a topic of significant discussion between industry and government in recent years as Transport Canada has taken steps to enhance the Canadian screening program.
My name is Daniel-Robert Gooch and I am the president of the Canadian Airports Council. Our 51 members represent more than 100 airports from coast to coast to coast including large global hubs like Toronto Pearson and Aéroports de Montréal to much smaller airports such as those in North Bay and Sydney. I am pleased to be joined today by Jennifer Sullivan, Toronto Pearson's director of corporate safety and security and the chair of the Canadian Airports Council security committee. Jennifer also serves as vice-chair of the Airports Council International world standing committee on security, so she can provide some perspective on the global context as well.
Canada's airports are managed and operated by local airport authorities on a not-for-profit basis. This means that any operating surpluses they deliver are reinvested into the airport, and any increases in operating costs are passed on to airport users, including travellers.
In Canada, the screening of passengers, baggage, and airport workers is of course the mandate of CATSA, a crown corporation. While the focus of today's session is on the screening of airport workers, we cannot tackle this topic effectively without discussing how CATSA is funded and approached overall.
While we have tremendous respect and support for the work that CATSA does, funding for CATSA is the single biggest operational challenge that airports face today. When the corporation was established in the aftermath of 9/11, government also created the air travellers security charge, a $7 to $25 levy applied to all airline tickets in Canada, and designed to cover the entire cost of the aviation security screening system, including the screening of airport workers. With the air travellers security charge, the government collects more than enough money to fund screening. In fact, in fiscal year 2015-16, the revenue from the ATSC was nearly $110 million more than what was provided to CATSA to fulfill its mandate. However, passengers are forced to stand in longer and longer lines waiting to be screened. But it's also not just passengers who are waiting in longer lines; airport workers are as well, and this has an impact on operational efficiency and raises costs for all of us.
Meanwhile, government has approached industry about potentially downloading the financial and operational responsibility for the screening of airport workers, their vehicles, and belongings at an estimated cost of $150 million a year. This is on top of more than $25 million a year in security costs that the government has quietly transferred to airports since 2009. In the interests of providing value to travellers and improving transparency, it is our opinion that ATSC revenues should be fully dedicated to covering CATSA's complete mandate, including the screening of airport workers. CATSA also needs greater flexibility to collaborate on and innovate how it runs a sustainable business. For example, with a couple of exceptions, CATSA has no ability to raise revenue from functions like training or supplemental services for airports. We see this as something that could be changed.
For the past two years, the CAC and our partners in the air carrier community have worked towards a permanent funding solution for CATSA, one that can address the organization's entire mandate. This is why airports were pleased with Transport Minister Marc Garneau's Transportation 2030 speech in Montreal last November, in which the minister made important commitments to address many of the items we've outlined above.
Unfortunately budget 2017 failed to make any progress on these commitments. Most relevant to our appearance today, however, is that budget 2017 delays a decision on how to handle and fund the screening of non-passengers, the workers at our airports. It is important that we get this work back on track.
In that context I will now turn it over to Jennifer for some specifics.