The Department of Transport earns an average 8% profit on mandatory security fees for air travelers—net profits over a five-year period totaled a third of a billion dollars, reported Blacklock’s Reporter..The Air Travelers Security Charge was introduced in 2002 on a promise of cost recovery of airport screening. However, detailed accounts show fee collections exceeded actual costs of screening by $333 million from 2016 to 2020, and would have been more but for pandemic travel bans..Total fees collected in the period were $3.98 billion. Actual expenses by the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority were $3.64 billion. Air passengers are charged $14 on domestic flights, $24 on tickets to U.S. destinations and $26 overseas..“This country puts all the costs on users and a little bit more so,” Daniel-Robert Gooch, president of the Canadian Airports Council — who joined unions and airport operators who have called the fee unfair— earlier testified at hearings of the Senate transport committee..“One of the challenges we’ve had is there’s not a lot of transparency around the money,” said Gooch. “Sometimes we’re talking with individuals in the government who don’t know the data between what is collected and what is spent.”.One senator described the charge as a federal tax unrelated to cost recovery. “It has become a cash cow, not a fee for service,” Senator Terry Mercer (N.S.) told a 2018 committee hearing. “Is there somewhere we can look at the amount of money being collected under the fee and the amount of money spent out of that fee for the actual service?”.“It seems like a bit of a shell game,” said Mercer. “The money is coming in and gets moved around, and you don’t know exactly what came in and what was spent.”.The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in 2014 hearings said travelers never received the prompt service they paid for. “This is a tax on the flying public,” said Dave Ritchie, vice president. “They are paying for a service and unfortunately they are not getting it in a time frame they should be.”.“We continue to see more travelers and fewer screeners,” testified Ken Neumann, then-national director of the United Steelworkers. “All that leads to is asking people to do more. It opens it up to security risks. There is more stress to the worker, and there are health and safety risks.”.“Really what is happening is the public is paying for something they are not getting,” said Neumann. “It’s a travesty.”.Western Standard
