They thrive largely on myth and fantasy, not the least example of which is the complete nonsense that Newfoundland and Labrador has been losing out on a multi-billion boondoggle in the fees collected by NavCanada for aircraft using Canadian airspace.
There's a replay of the argument in the Sunday Telegram [not available online but reprinted below], in the form of an opinion piece by David Fox. Living now in Halifax, Fox is retired and has been championing the cause of having the provincial government collect some sort of air space usage tax.
Fox calls it his:
"air-space revenue theory" being a "rightful revenue stream" for the province...While obviously wants to believe this idea is still open for discussion by the provincial government, let's recall that it has already been examined recently as two years ago [if memory serves]. The conclusion, in a rough paraphrase, is that the entire argument is foolish.
Oddly enough, the Telly printed Fox's submission but neglected to note they had carried a story on the provincial assessment. The two side-by-side would have been amusing especially since Fox notes the number of times he has raised the issue (gross) but neglects to point out the one time where a factual assessment shot his entire argument out of the sky (net).
Let's dispose of this nonsense as quickly as possible.
Firstly, there is no constitutional basis for the provincial government to levy any form of tax on aviation. The entire matter is the jurisdiction of the federal government, as established in the Terms of Union.
Secondly, there is no cash windfall nor is there any debt, as Fox argues. The fees charged are used to provide air navigation services. That operation is currently carried on by NavCanada, a non-for-profit corporation. Even if by some miracle, someone could manage to get control of aviation handed to the provincial legislature, the money collected would and could only go to sustain air traffic control and related services. There is no boondoggle waiting be had.
While Fox may be right that 57 years worth of fees adds up to billions, he is talking about gross revenues. What he needs to look at is net, namely what's left after the costs of providing air navigation services are taken into account. As we can see from this 1999 story, the net is pretty small. Considering that it reflects the net from all air activity in Canada - not just over Newfoundland and Labrador - there really isn't any cash here to be had even if we could figure out how to get it.
In other words, the net of Fox's gross fallacy is naught.
'nuff said.
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Reprint begins:
Province losing revenue in air-space fees
Most of us are aware "timing" in politics is all-important if one wishes to get an important item approved by government that is in the best interest of the party pushing it.
Such is the case with creating a provincial royalty fee protocol for air-space users applicable to all aircraft users (both commercial and military) flying over 500,000 square kilometres of Newfoundland and Labrador land area to a height of 90 kilometres.
To date, this provincial air-space resource (legally defined the same as land ownership), is now being used by private, national and international airline companies along with all world military aircraft users, headquartered and administered outside the province. And the province, in return, is getting absolutely nothing for this in terms of a royalty which should be collected if there were an existing agreement with Ottawa.
This situation has been ongoing since 1949. To date, no proposed fee protocol has been discussed, let alone signed off between Ottawa and our provincial government which, if it were approved by both governments, would have given the province its rightful compensation.
To put it in a more fundamental and financial perspective, after some 57 years following Confederation to October (at least by my calculations), the province has lost about $8.532 billion (including interest on the unpaid yearly balance owed), with Transport Canada owing some $6.373 billion from 1949 to 1996 and NavCan owing about $2.158 billion from 1997 to October.
Losing millions annually
Included in these lost revenues are the revenue and interest contributions by the national and international commercial airline users at about $6.315 billion and all the national and international military aircraft users at about $2.216 billion due to all parties daily 1,000-plus aircraft overflights through our provincial skies.
Such losses since 1949 (by my calculations) now add up to an average annual air-space revenue loss to the province of about $147,104,000 per year to October.
Every time you see an aircraft, you can easily figure the province is losing about $0.40 per air kilometre traveled.
Since going public with my idea of an "air-space revenue theory" being a "rightful revenue stream" for the province, as outlined in my paper submitted to the royal commission in December 2002 and followed up with my letters in your newspaper in January 2004 and February 2005, you can bet there are folks in Transport Canada, the Department of National Defence and NavCan Ottawa and elsewhere who have already digested and calculated, with sombre thought, I might add, the "dollar consequences" of this subject, just in case this air-space fee charge idea is in fact proven constitutionally correct and in the favour of the province. Regardless of what is now written in the already signed- off Terms of Union document of 1949, we know nothing today is "written in stone."
I only hope the premier and his intergovernmental committee will present this idea to Ottawa for approval and not let our neighbours from Quebec from the Party Quebecois beat Newfoundland to the punch with this same fee.
David J. Fox
Halifax, N.S.