On Thu, 23 Aug 2007 20:22:13 -0700, wrote
in . com:

On Aug 23, 8:55 am, Larry Dighera wrote:
On Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:54:58 -0400, The Visitor
wrote in
:

Typical price in Canada 1.37 to 1.50 per litre

Have you noticed a decrease in GA activity in Canada?

Yup. Transport Canada says that in some areas of the country
flight training is down 50%. At the airport where I learned to fly in
the early '70s there used to be three flight schools; two were busy
enough and the third did some float training. The tiedown area was
covered in airplanes. Now there's one flight school with a couple of
Katanas, and both were tied down off in a corner the other day when I
was there. Maybe a quarter of the old number of airplanes tied down
outside, with a few more in hangars. No kids at the fence. And this in
a city that has seen the population double in that time.
There just isn't the interest in it anymore. Too many other
forms of entertainment, both the electronic kind and things like ATVs
and a bunch of other machines we didn't have in the '70s. The dollars
that used to go into flying now go into home theaters, jetskis, quads,
computers and Xboxes. And SUVs. And second and third and fourth
vehicles. Into $50,000 home renovations. Into trips to exotic places.
You can only afford so many things, and when so much is
available, the dollars get spread a lot thinner.

Dan

Does this mean that NavCanada will be forced to increase its
privatized ATC fees as a result of their operating costs being spread
over a smaller number of users?

Apparently they think there is more, not less, flying occurring, so
given your report, the increase must be a result of airline traffic
not GA:


http://www.navcanada.ca/NavCanada.as...007\nr0731.xml
NAV CANADA reports May and June traffic figure

(Ottawa, July 31, 2007) - NAV CANADA today announced its traffic
figures for May and June 2007, as measured in weighted charging
units for enroute, terminal and oceanic air navigation services,
in comparison to the same months in 2006.

The traffic in May and June increased by an average of 4.5 per
cent and 5.2 per cent, respectively, compared to the same months
in 2006.

Fiscal year-to-date traffic was 4.6 per cent higher than in fiscal
year 2006. NAV CANADA’s fiscal year runs from September 1 to
August 31. ...




http://www.navcanada.ca/NavCanada.as...007\nr0712.xml
NAV CANADA reduces service charges by 4% on August 1

(Ottawa, July, 12, 2007) - NAV CANADA today announced that it
would be proceeding with reductions in its customer service
charges totalling 4 per cent effective August 1, 2007.

This will include a 3 per cent reduction already announced, that
will come into effect August 1, 2007, one month ahead of the
original proposed date of September 1, 2007. In addition, the
Company has decided to add a temporary 1 per cent reduction for
the period August 1, 2007 to August 31, 2008. ...

With the reduction announced today, overall NAV CANADA service
charges will have grown only six per cent since they were fully
implemented in 1999 - an estimated 14 percentage points below the
growth in inflation. ...

Details:

http://www.navcanada.ca/ContentDefin...0712_12_en.pdf