Finance committee  We certainly believe that additional funding would help us improve our competitive position. We would invest additional funds in the U.S. market, which is our toughest market at this point.

Finance committee  Well, our mandate is to market Canada, so the GST rebate program is not within our mandate. We wouldn't really be—

Finance committee  Not directly, no.

Finance committee  As I indicated, first of all, every government organization would obviously like more funding. We are in a very competitive sector. We believe our strategy will give us the highest return on investment within the budget we have, but certainly there is significant competition now

Finance committee  I don't have the exact numbers since 2001, but I could certainly provide them to you. As I said earlier, our base funding currently is $78.8 million. We did receive some one-time funding in the last number of years to help us with SARS and 9/11, but I don't have those precise fig

Finance committee  Our funding this year is $78.8 million, and next year it will be $75.8 million.

Finance committee  We've been in place as a crown corporation since 2001. As I tried to reflect in my opening comments, the challenge of the sector is that we are in a very competitive sector worldwide. Many more people are interested in travel, and if you look at the world as the market, many mo

Finance committee  I'm not sure.

Finance committee  I can't speak to government policy.

Finance committee  I don't know if the industry was consulted, but we were not consulted.

Finance committee  Thank you for inviting us to appear before you today. As a crown corporation of the Government of Canada, the Canadian Tourism Commission is specifically legislated to sustain a vibrant and profitable Canadian tourism industry; to market Canada as a desirable tourism destinatio

Industry committee  I know that Industry Canada did do a study, and we have some of the results of that study. But I can't speak to anything other than the information I have, which are the results of the study.

Industry committee  The position is that these are proposed amendments to the Excise Tax Act to eliminate the visitor rebate program. We believe it will impact our ability to attract tour groups and meeting and convention business to Canada.

Industry committee  No, it didn't.

Industry committee  We had a $3 million budget cut, which will impact our 2007 budget. It's not specifically targeted to the U.S. It's an overall budget cut.