Mr. Chair, I appreciated the comments by the member for New Brunswick Southwest. He has worked hard on the Canada-U.S. Parliamentary Association.
We have had a number of opportunities to take about border issues and also reflect upon what his area has had to go through to procure a new crossing versus my area which even today is in a quagmire.
It is amazing. The most important border crossing in North America is controlled by a private American citizen who has a billion dollars annually in revenue, according to Forbes magazine, and is looking to consolidate all of the customs people on the American side and the government provides $13 million in subsidy per year for those customs people.
I would like to ask the hon. member about the impact on tourism that he thinks this will have across the country.
Back in 2003 there were 577,000 jobs directly related to tourism. This is going to have a profound impact on the hotel and restaurant industries. I would like to get his reflections on that, not only in terms of the major urban centres but also in terms of some of the smaller border crossings that still rely on people who go back and forth across the border daily and who may not necessarily cross the border any more because they will have to have a passport.
It is important to note that it is not just Canadians who will have to have a passport. Americans will have to have a passport to get back into their country.