THUNDER BAY -- The airline industry is asking for the North's help to get the province to change its fuel tax plan.
Announced in 2014, the province is increasing its fuel tax by one-cent-a-liter each a year over the next four years.
National Airlines Council of Canada executive director executive director Marc-Andre O'Rourke said that's making it difficult for the industry to try and compete as around three million people head to the US to fly from airports every year.
"It would be actually the highest fuel tax in the country and in fact North America," he said by the time the tax is fully implemented.
O'Rourke was in Thunder Bay Thursday to get the region's business community to let him know how important the aviation industry is to economic development.
While people heading South takes business away from the Thunder Bay International Airport, the tax's larger impact is on people in isolated communities who rely on air travel as an essential service.
"We're starting from the premise that this was an unintended consequence of the tax," president and CEO Ed Schmidtke said.
"It will be decisions as drastic as 'do I travel on medical, business or don't I' and how much freight can communities afford to get shipped up to their homes."
O'Rourke said the tax will impact communities across the province. He's gathering information to take back to the province and hopefully it will listen.
For the North especially, the tax doesn't make sense. It was originally pitched as a revenue generator for public transit.
"The opportunities to fund public transit in these remote communities are slim to none," Schmidtke said.
