Finance committee  In our experience, VRP programs are economically smart. Shifting the money to marketing will not address the fundamental issue that it's a consumption tax and you're exporting a product that's not being consumed in the country.

Finance committee  I just want to clarify that we are a private company. We're not funded by the government. We already have a user-pay system. We already charge the tourist 20% to do it. We've been doing it since 2002, and we're just suggesting that the entire market be run that way, at no cost to

Finance committee  And all harmonized sales—

Finance committee  Just to clarify that, 100% of OECD countries with a consumption tax have a rebate program. No country has ever revoked a rebate program with a consumption tax. If Canada were to do it, it would be the only OECD country that is charging a consumption tax on a product that's not be

Finance committee  Ontario.

Finance committee  I haven't seen any cancellation of the Ontario program, but I would think that the HST would fall into this category, which in effect is a provincial consumption tax.

Finance committee  I'd like to speak to the numbers for a moment, because you made the point extremely well. First of all, just to talk about numbers for a second, if you look at the numbers that are provided by CRA, it's approximately one million transactions a year. If you look at the overnight v

Finance committee  Yes, I wanted to come back to the question of VRPs being smart economic decisions for the host country. Global Refund has a lot of experience with this. Usually we're entering countries; we've never had to exit a country. When we enter countries, we often have an independent econ

Finance committee  The tourists pay, because when they show up at the point of exit, and they've spent $100 in GST, they're only given $80 of it instead of the $100. The other $20 goes to the operator to administer the program.

Finance committee  The visitor rebate program is not part of the convention business. It is independent travellers who are coming, buying goods, and taking them home.

Finance committee  Absolutely.

Finance committee  Yes, zero.

Finance committee  Mr. Chairperson and members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to speak before you today. I am Kevin Boughen and I'm president of Global Refund Canada Ltd. We are a subsidiary of Global Refund Group, incorporated in the Netherlands. Global Refund Group provides 80% of