Mr. Speaker, the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority has told the Thunder Bay Airport that it will not be paying the full operating costs for the whole baggage screening system that was recently installed to comply with security regulations. CATSA will pay only $70,000 per year of the required $250,000 per year because it does not have enough funding from the government to pay its own expenses.
The Minister of Finance has an additional $375 million in air security revenues in a bank account while the government shortchanges Canada's airports instead of paying the bills.
The Thunder Bay Airport must now hike fees 24% to pay to operate CATSA's equipment. What is worse, the extra costs mean a 13% increase on rents payable to the federal government.
I call on the Minister of Finance to provide CATSA with the money it needs to provide and pay for air security at our airports.