Mr. Speaker, during prorogation, the Minister of Transport announced that he was increasing the air security tax by a stunning 250% over five years. Troubling?
In 2002 the then transport critic, now Minister of Canadian Heritage, issued a press release entitled, “10 Reasons to Hate the Air Tax”. He said, “This tax grab represents one of the most arrogant, wasteful, and irresponsible public policy decisions ever made by Canada’s government”.
In another release he said, “This is stunning proof of failure to understand basic economics”. And further, “The government should pay for increased air security from general revenue, and should stop fleecing fliers”.
Now that he is at the cabinet table, is the former transport critic content that his cabinet colleagues “fleece fliers” to the tune of $1.5 billion?