Originally Posted by
jawnbc
I'm stating that taxpayers ALREADY subsidize passports: they're not 100% cost recovery. No federal government services are 100% cost recovery: the minority of services for which user fees are collected are still significantly budget funded (Parks, passports, food inspection).
So that means that you expect non-traveling Canadians to increase their subsidy, then.
Besides, how many Canadians never leave the country within 5 or 10 years? You can't go to the States without a passport or biometric driving licence/ID card.
More than you might guess. In the last few weeks I have personally spoken to several Canadians who have never had a passport. I seem to recall reading somewhere that about 60% of Canadians have passports. I'm sure some of the remaining 40% have passports intermittently, but it implies that a large number of Canadians do not travel outside of the country.
I only got my first passport five years ago, and I'm in my 40s. I agree, the US passport requirements have changed things, but several provinces (3 I believe) have enhanced driver's licenses which mean that residents of those provinces only require passports to travel outside Canada and the US.