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YVR $5 improvement fee bump a ‘tax grab:’ consumer advocate

Most travelers flying out of Vancouver International Airport will soon be paying an extra five dollars for an improvement fee that currently costs $20. Tom Walsh reports.

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — Most travelers flying out of Vancouver International Airport will soon be paying an extra five dollars for an improvement fee that currently costs $20.

It’s another tax grab — that’s what Bruce Cran with the Consumers Association of Canada says about the increase set to take effect Jan. 1.

“We would be better off with a utility-type airport where we use it for flying, not for shopping and all the rest of it,” he says.

YVR staff say the increase is needed to pay for future growth, but Cran says it will drive more business to Bellingham’s airport.

“They should ask us whether we want to have these things. Everyone I ever speak to absolutely objects to paying for any of that. It just seems like a tax grab — it’s not what we really require here at all.”

Even though the fee is going up, it’s still cheaper than fees for most other Canadian airports, including Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax and Montreal ($30). Toronto and Winnipeg have a $25 fee, while Ottawa’s fee is just $23.

Vancouver’s fee only applies to people flying outside B.C. and Yukon.

Since it was introduced more than 25 years ago, more than $2 billion has been raised to expand terminals and build new runways.

– With files from Tom Walsh, CityNews Vancouver

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