Finance committee  You'd be robbing Peter to pay Paul. You need to do both. It is bad—

Finance committee  I think we need to spend some time talking about it, but quite frankly, doing the GST rebate cancellation is bad policy. You're not saving any money; just moving it from one side to the other is not.... You're fooling yourself.

Finance committee  But what we're talking about is those people never coming here. What you're not understanding is that for meetings and travel, and tour and travel, there is an automatic exemption. That money never even comes into your books, and it far exceeds—far exceeds—what we're talking about in individual travel.

Finance committee  Certainly, we're concerned that government simply hasn't been aware of the economic value of tourism. When you take a look at the GDP, and if you look at the size of our...we are larger than farming, hunting, and agriculture, all those put together. So it speaks volumes about the misperception of the value of the industry.

Finance committee  We think in Toronto that investment in tourism is an investment with immediate returns. For example, a $25 million increase in tourism marketing will give you an immediate increase in tourism demand of somewhere between three-quarters of a billion dollars to over $1 billion. Return investment is 28% to 54%, and your increased federal tax revenue is somewhere between $104 million to $200 million.

Finance committee  We would suggest that it isn't a cost saver; it's actually going to end up costing the government money. The numbers they're using...the $78.5 million is really only a part of the issue. That takes up the revenues and costs dealing with the individual travel. No account was taken of the meetings, convention business, or the tour and travel.

Finance committee  Thank you. I'm also representing the Ontario Tourism Commission. Thank you for the opportunity to appear here today. Tourism's GDP is equal to that of agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting in Canada. Total GDP attributable to tourism is 11.8%. From a policy perspective, it is both underappreciated and undervalued for what it contributes to the economy.