Quebec’s aerospace industry generates $18 billion in sales and accounts for 37,000 jobs. Quebec exports nearly 80% of its production outside Canada. In 2022, the aerospace industry was the largest exporter in Quebec, accounting for 10.9% of Quebec’s total exports.

Over the past 25 years, aerospace industry sales in Quebec have grown at an average annual rate of almost 5%. However, various ill-advised decisions by the current government are impeding the industry’s growth.

We have talked a lot about the fact that the government prevented the Quebec industry from even submitting a proposal for the renewal of its reconnaissance aircraft.

However, I’d like to give you another example today. When the luxury tax was introduced, several members of the National Finance Committee warned the government against this measure, which seemed to stem from election-related ideological prejudice rather than a rational, fact-based decision.

At the time, we asked the government to produce a cost-benefit analysis, because we were worried that the damage to jobs and the economy would be greater than the tax revenue, particularly for the aerospace industry, an economic engine for Montreal and Quebec. In the end, we learned that no such analysis had been done.

What we feared has now come to pass. According to a study by HEC Montréal, the aerospace industry is out $1.1 billion in revenue. The anticipated luxury tax revenues are well below the $55 million in GST that the federal government would have collected on those purchases.

In short, the luxury tax revenue was less than the GST revenue would have been. Let me just say that the luxury goods tax has been anything but good for the aerospace industry.

Let’s just look at Bombardier. Since the tax was introduced, the company has lost orders for 20 planes: 12 Global aircraft and eight Challengers. This represents an US$880-million shortfall and the annual labour of 750 workers.

What the industry wants the government to do is, at the very least, change the tax to ensure fair treatment for Canadians who buy a plane for commercial purposes.

It’s time the government acknowledged that this tax is wrong‑headed and that its main victims are aerospace industry workers.