Jeff Colbourne
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 10/98) - As of Nov. 1, a number of proposed Nav Canada user fees for air navigation services will come into effect.

These proposed changes are not going over well with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and the Baffin Chamber of Commerce.

"The new rates that Nav Canada proposes to assess airlines flying to Nunavut are just too high," said NTI president Jose Kusugak.

"We believe the best way to have Northerners pay their fair share of air navigation costs, but no more than their fair share, is to freeze fees at the Phase I level. This means fees in the North would be rebated by 50 per cent compared to the rest of the country."

With support from the Nunavut headquarters of the GNWT's resources, wildlife and economic development department, NTI and the BCC made a joint submission to Nav Canada on the corporation's proposed Phase II fee structure.

Among the recommendations the group made was that air navigation charges should be frozen at their current level on all passenger, cargo and medevac flights between a southern point and a point in the NWT and between any two points in the NWT.

"This is really appropriate in the case of Nunavut," said Kusugak.

"None of our communities are connected by roads and our people have no choice but to ship food and other essential items by air."

Kusugak went on to say that the North is about the only place in Canada where planes fly full one way and almost empty the other way. This, added to the fact that Northerners are already paying by far the highest airfares and freight rates in the country.

"We estimate that food mail rates will increase by 22.4 per cent as a result of Nav Canada's proposed fee structure," said Chris Cote, president of the Baffin Chamber of Commerce.

"This is, in effect, an extremely regressive form of taxation, hitting lower income families much harder than middle and upper income families."

Nav Canada's director of rates and revenues said NTI's submission was received very late last Friday just before deadline for submissions.

"I don't know if it would be right for me to comment at this stage on what recommendations may make sense or may not make sense," said director Arthur Andreassen.

All written submissions Nav Canada has received will go to the federal Minister of Transport who will review the fees against the charging principles they have in their Act and whether they comply or not.

"That is the final approval of the proposals," said Andreassen.

Over the winter and summer Nav Canada has conducted some 10 to 15 meetings in the North to understand the issues and concerns of groups like NTI and they are mindful of those issues, he said.

"It is a commercial operation and there are some limits as to how far a company can go. And I guess that's where the debate is. Where's the right balance," said Andreassen.

Among the other recommendations NTI and BCC made in their submission to Nav Canada:

• Nav Canada should adopt an interpretation of section of the Air Navigation Services Commercialization Act that recognizes the challenging physical and socio-economic characteristics of northern and remote regions of the country.
• There should be a 50 per cent rebate on all charges for passengers, cargo and combi flights between flights between two points in the NWT and between a southern point and the NWT.
• Charges on all medevac flights be waived.
• Test flights be charged in the same manner as training flights. Have terminal service charges applied only on the first departure of any given airport.
• Terminal service charges be waived for flights that take off and abort due to bad weather.
• Nav Canada should provide for more geographically diverse representation on its board and advisory committee.