Mr. Speaker, it is unfortunate the government is again using time allocation to railroad legislation through the House of Commons at a time when there is not an active legislative agenda for the government. There should be no rush. We could describe it as an anemic legislative agenda.
Why was there no impact analysis whatsoever of the impact of a $2.2 billion tax on the regions of Canada, on discount and short haul carriers that are so important and necessary for air competition, and on struggling airports? Why was no impact analysis done?
Why have the government, the Minister of Finance and the Department of Finance priced the air traveller tax so high? The U.S. equivalent is $2.50. In Canada it would be $12. Arguably the Liberal plan in the long term to devalue the Canadian dollar would help equalize it in time, but in the short term is security a premium?
Finance officials have stated publicly that they based the fee on questionable data which significantly underestimates Canadian air travel over the next year. Based on current air traveller traffic the government would take in over $1 billion more with the tax than it would spend on implementing security measures.
The government is trying to profit on the back of Canada's most vulnerable industry, the airline industry. It is exploiting the September 11 tragedy in many ways to raise revenue for Liberal spending.
The government and the minister have stated that they would reduce the tax if they discovered after the first year that it took in more revenue than was required. Why will the government not amend the legislation to ensure the tax would be reduced if it took in more revenue than was required to implement the security measures all Canadians agree are necessary?