Transport committee  The tourism data that we have shows that one dollar invested yields seven dollars of revenue. However, something is rarely taken into consideration in the calculations: When Canadian tourists decide to stay here in Canada instead of travelling to Europe or the United States, and they visit a remote region in Quebec or Canada, the money they spend stays in our economy.

Transport committee  I don't have those kinds of statistics with me today, but I can check and then submit them to the committee.

Transport committee  Thank you for that question. We're very pleased with this program, even though there have been a few issues. Many people buy these tickets so they can travel on vacation during periods when many tourists are already visiting the regions. We definitely try to promote these tickets all year round so that people buy more of them.

Transport committee  I think that's possible, absolutely. As we always say, you have to make life easy for tourists. If a trip looks complicated to them, they will change destinations or travel plans. Unfortunately, connecting flights or the routing that an airline company offers is often complicated.

Transport committee  What we're saying is that international tourists don't currently have access to the regions. They arrive in Montreal or Quebec City and have no options, which means that very few tourists travel by air to visit remote regions. As we said earlier, it all comes down to price, which is the first criterion that influences tourists' choices when they buy an airline ticket.

Transport committee  I said something about that a little earlier. There isn't enough tourist traffic in the remote regions. Apart from the problem of getting there, people realize, once they've arrived, that there are no car rentals, no taxis and no shuttles or buses to get them to tourist attractions.

Transport committee  Thank you. There are so many beautiful places to visit in Quebec's remote regions, but people don't want to waste their vacation time driving 14 hours to visit tourist destinations. Consequently, from the tourism industry's point of view, affordable and reliable air access has to be available if we want people to visit our northern and remote regions.

Transport committee  Yes, definitely. The Alliance de l'industrie touristique du Québec works closely with Destination Canada, a federal Crown corporation. We have a somewhat unique model in Quebec, compared to the rest of Canada. In Canada, the organizations that promote international tourism and the organizations that—

Transport committee  Definitely, but I'm trying to understand the meaning of your question.

Transport committee  I hadn't heard those comments. We encourage both air and road transportation. These days, there are all kinds of ways to offset the carbon footprint of our trips, so that's not a problem. Of course, tourism industry actors, including businesses, are very much interested in sustainable development.

Transport committee  Yes, definitely. I'd like to point out something that people don't consider: International tourists don't travel to remote regions because it's complicated. However, an international tourist spends twice as much as a local tourist. In Quebec, we want tourists to leave the urban areas and travel to our remote regions.

Transport committee  To be honest, I don't really have any expertise in that area.

Transport committee  Quebec's transport minister struck a standing committee on regional air transportation two years ago. Representatives of the air carriers, airports, chambers of commerce and the tourism industry sit on it, but there are no federal government representatives for the moment.

Transport committee  I don't know if the objective is to start a fight over areas of responsibility, but I'm going to give you a somewhat political answer. Land use, I think, is both a federal and provincial jurisdiction. We have a big country. Quebec is a big province that covers 1,500,000 square kilometres and has a population density of 5.6 inhabitants per square kilometre.

Transport committee  We think the current model doesn't work. I only have numbers for Quebec, but if you have an average of only 13 passengers on an aircraft bound for the regions, you can definitely expect that the airlines can't run a profitable service. Having said that, I'm honestly not here to defend the airlines.