[OT]: How to help a Canadian Spaceport?

[Jamon Camisso]

On October 29, 2007 01:35:01 pm Christopher Browne wrote:
> On 10/26/07, Scott Elcomb <psema4-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> > I came across this story today (via /.):
> >  
> > http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2007/10/26/launch-pad.ht
> >ml
> >
> > My question is - What, if anything, could we (as citizens) do
> > towards encouraging the Federal Gov't to invest in this idea?
> >
> > Petitions (online?  written?), and Blogging come to mind; how much
> > effect they'd have though seems a little hazy.
> >
> > I could see a Canadian Spaceport for Tourists generating a bunch of
> > interest -- not to mention jobs or dollars.
>
> Let me take a contrary view on this, and not from the perspective of
> "oh, I don't want any space stuff happening"...
>
> Why should the Federal Government spend a lot of money to subsidize
> tourists?
>
> If they cannot or will not pay enough to attract the infrastructure,
> why should the government take on the risk?
>
> This would expressly be a case of "corporate welfare," of subsidizing
> a specific set of companies, and not for any value I can really see.

Tourism is worth > $500 billion a year globally. So some short-term 
subsidies could end up being long-term investments in that regard.

> When I lived in the US, I did see some of this sort of thing
> happening in the sports industry, where professional teams have
> gotten into the habit of moving to whichever city offers to spend the
> most on giving them a "free" stadium.  It was (and is) a corrupt
> practice.  The cities would then pass on the cost by imposing
> surtaxes on hotels and rental cars, and the fact that this would be
> paid almost exclusively by non-voters made the practice palatable to
> city councils and their voters.
>
> To be consistent with that practice, we might set up a "Canadian
> Space Tourism Program" where all foreigners visiting the country
> would be charged $10/day during their visit to help subsidize our
> space program.
>
> Better still:  Impose an extra 1% GST on all foreigners in the
> country.  They don't vote, so they can't meaningfully oppose it.

Those measures would not do much to attract tourists...

Jamon
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