Mr. Speaker, let me put it this way. In the mother parliament, Westminster, the chancellor of the exchequer is present in the house of commons to represent his position on bills before that house. It is unfortunate that we have lost that convention here.
It is doubly unfortunate because in fact the bill and the provisions which we will be focusing on overwhelmingly concern the Department of Transport, and the Minister of Transport has basically admitted in public that his recommendations on the bill were overridden by the Department of Finance.
The $24 return flat tax on air travel will have a devastating effect on air travel, particularly for short haul, low cost airlines. We received testimony from eight witnesses at committee and every single one opposed the $24 round trip tax, including the Canadian air transportation agency, the Canadian pilots' association, WestJet and the unions representing the industry, all of them saying that the impact of this could be devastating.
Does the secretary of state not recognize that a flat $24 fee levied on a short haul, low cost carrier for an airfare from Vancouver to Victoria, where the base ticket price may be $60, is all out of proportion to a $24 charge assessed for a business class ticket from Victoria to St. John's, Newfoundland on a $4,500 full fare ticket?
Does the secretary of state not understand that his government may be responsible for putting out of business low cost, short haul air carriers such as WestJet and smaller companies and that it would destroy whatever vestiges of air competition we have in the country?