Canadian border blow as visitor rebates axed

Emily Pacey

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Operators on the Canada-US border suffer setback as government dissolves visitor tax rebates system

Under the programme, visitors leaving Canada could stop at participating Canadian land border duty-free shops and obtain cash refunds up to C$446 ($398). Retailers benefited from rebate holders spending in their stores.

Canadian border duty-free store organisation Frontier Duty Free Association executive director Laurie Karson told RavenFox.com, "The recent announcement by the Conservative Government to cut the Visitor Rebate Program will directly impact our stores."
 
The FDFA will be taking its lead from the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC) in any efforts to have the ban reversed. TIAC said in a statement, "The longer-term potential impacts of this blow to Canada's global tourism competitiveness will result in damage to our sector exceeding that of either September 11 or the SARS outbreak." It went on to claim that the government has not fully investigated the contribution of the rebate to duty-free sales. "The sum may actually be multiples of the C$78.8m the government claims to be saving," said TIAC.

See DFNI October 1, out now, for more details.