Human Resources Committee on Feb. 5th, 2024

[Michael Rousseau]

I think that would be a fair characterization or description.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Tracy Gray]

The 168-page 2022 Air Canada annual report and the 180-page 2021 Air Canada annual report mention “disability” or “disabilities” only a couple of times, and it's exclusively around hiring. I think that people hearing that would find it difficult to believe that this is a priority for Air Canada. I'm not sure how Air Canada can be taking improving its service levels seriously when it's not even mentioned in your annual reports.

I want to go ahead here because my time is limited. We only have an hour with Air Canada, with no other witnesses being called.

I have approval from the chair of Disability Without Poverty, Michelle Hewitt, to bring forth her comments today. I will read some of them into the record:

One of the areas that concerns me is what happens when flights are delayed. The burden is heavy on disabled travellers who have often chosen the time and route with great deliberation so that it fits with medication schedules and other bodily needs. If a connection is missed, disabled travellers need more support than is typically offered if meals and accommodation are needed.

Mr. Rousseau, would you agree that persons with disabilities are disproportionately affected by travel delays?

[Michael Rousseau]

I think that's a fair assessment. Our initiatives will be executed over the next couple of years to help alleviate that concern.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Tracy Gray]

Mr. Rousseau, Air Canada was rated as having the worst on-time performance among large airlines in North America in 2023. Isn't that correct?

[Michael Rousseau]

That is a correct statement. Of the 10 that were measured, that's correct, although I would say on-time performance is not an absolute indicator of missed connections.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Tracy Gray]

Although there may be many factors for delays, it was reported that you pointed to a few primary factors in media reports. These were “air traffic controllers, bad weather and a network running at full tilt amid high demand”. Is that correct? Were those comments that you made?

[Michael Rousseau]

I didn't make those comments myself, but our spokesperson may have made those comments. I'm not aware. Certainly, weather and other factors do influence performance.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Tracy Gray]

Since you have the worst on-time performance, are you saying that weather only affects Air Canada and not all the other airlines in North America?

[Michael Rousseau]

I didn't say that at all. I'm saying that, given that we're in the northern part of the continent, weather is typically worse than in the southern part of the continent. That would be one factor that may be different between our performance and others' performance.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Tracy Gray]

Thank you, Mr. Rousseau.

We'll now go over to Mr. van Koeverden.

Welcome to committee. It's over to you for six minutes.

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Milton, ON]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

It's a real privilege to be here at HUMA. I've never appeared at this committee before, but I thank the members of this committee and the chair for allowing me to be here on behalf of one of my constituents.

Mr. Rousseau, thank you for joining this committee today. As CEO of Air Canada, it's your responsibility to be accountable for Air Canada's failings as a company.

Today I'm going to refer to a CBC article about the father of one of my constituents. He was an 83-year-old man who, while on board a transatlantic flight, “developed severe medical symptoms”, including “chest pain, back pain, vomiting, loss of bowel control and the inability to stand up.”

I'll acknowledge that this meeting today concerns how those who are disabled are treated on your airline, but given this man's age and his condition, I think it is pertinent. I've had conversations with this man's family, as they're my constituents, and I can tell you that they continue to be in a deep state of trauma after what they experienced.

I believe that you're probably familiar with this case. I'm referring to a flight that left Delhi in the late summer of 2023 as Flight AC51. While over Europe, my constituent's father experienced a severe medical event that has been referred to by some physicians who have been consulted following this tragedy as one that warranted landing early or turning around. They would have expected the Medair consultants who were contacted to have made that recommendation.

My constituent tried to make this situation abundantly clear to the inflight staff on board. They asked for a physician. That wasn't provided, or nobody came forward. Unfortunately, my constituent's father passed away shortly after the flight landed in Montreal. I'll say on their behalf that they have not felt adequately reassured that anything has changed at Air Canada since this or that Air Canada took all precautions necessary to keep this gentleman alive.

Mr. Rousseau, when Air Canada performs well financially as a company, you personally benefit as well. Your compensation more than tripled in 2022, to $12.4 million, compared to $3.7 million in 2021, according to documents released by the airline. The stock price reflects similar performance over that period of time. Do you feel that being called to this committee today, given that people experience things similar to what my constituent has experienced, is reflective of great performance by your airline?

[Michael Rousseau]

I am very aware of the situation. We've provided our condolences to the family and we've reached out to the family to speak to them about the situation.

As you probably know as well, the situation is in front of the courts at this point in time, and it's very difficult for me to expand on any aspect as to what happened. We believe, based on our investigation, that our crew followed all the right procedures; however, again, this is in front of the courts, and it's difficult for me to expand on the situation.

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Milton, ON]

I appreciate that this is still before the courts and that for legal reasons it's impossible to comment. Nothing can bring this gentleman back, and the family acknowledges that, obviously. It's a tragedy and it is something that the family will continue to endure.

However, going forward, perhaps changes can be made to ensure that better care is provided for people who are experiencing traumatic health-related events. Perhaps it could be better training or better resources on board.

What have you considered in order to ensure that while this might not be entirely preventable in all cases going forward, lives can be saved if proper life-saving care is available on board? What changes have you made?

[Michael Rousseau]

Again, thank you for the follow-up comment.

We're still studying and still investigating the situation. Our procedures are followed by many different airlines around the world. There are cases in which we do divert if recommended by the doctors. In this case, as you know, that wasn't recommended. Again, we will continue to learn and investigate, and if it's required, we'll modify our procedures.

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Milton, ON]

Well, on behalf of my constituents and their family, I sincerely hope that happens. The only legacy that could potentially come from such a terrible tragedy is that fewer of these events are experienced by families in the future.

I would just add, on behalf of my constituents and their family, that they don't feel as though Air Canada has done a great job in terms of their accountability since this tragedy. I would request that you and Air Canada do better.

Thank you, Mr. Rousseau.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Tracy Gray]

Thank you, Mr. Van Koeverden.

We'll go to Ms. Chabot for six minutes.

[Louise Chabot, Bloc, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Rousseau. I also thank all the other witnesses.

We all know what led to this motion. There was a very unfortunate, if not shocking, incident in Prince George where a disabled man in a wheelchair had to drag himself out of the plane owing to a lack of assistance. That is inexplicable and appalling.

We know that Air Canada sent a letter of apology, but beyond apologies, how can such a situation be justified?

In your opinion, is this an isolated case or are there other similar situations that occur and that should never happen again?

[Michael Rousseau]

Thank you for your question.

I'm aware of that case of Mr. Hodgins, who was arriving in Las Vegas. Kerianne may provide more details a little bit later. We are very sorry for what happened. Our contractor in Las Vegas didn't show up to help Mr. Hodgins off the plane to his mobility aid. That is our responsibility. We have dealt with that third party.

To my point earlier, it was a mistake on our part. The training we're putting in place and all the different initiatives we're putting in place will hopefully reduce the number of these mistakes. Again, we did successfully help the majority of the 500,000 people who travelled on our planes last year who required assistance regarding disability.

Kerianne, do you have anything to offer on Mr. Hodgins?

[Kerianne Wilson, Director, Customer Accessibility, Air Canada]

Thank you very much, Mike.

Thank you for the question—

[Louise Chabot, Bloc, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

Training is a major issue.

I'm sorry for interrupting you.

The Auditor General's latest report focused a great deal on the issue of training. We know that there are a lot of employees, but management also has a huge role to play in these matters.

You adopted Air Canada's accessibility plan 2023-26. What has changed in your practices since you did that?

[Michael Rousseau]

Thank you again for the question.

A number of initiatives have been introduced in the last several months as part of our three-year plan. For example, customers with disabilities who require a lift are put on the plane first. In fact, we will delay a plane to ensure that they go on first before any other customer goes on.

Second, we try to put customers with disabilities at the front of each of the cabins they're sitting in, again for a greater degree of respect.

As for their mobility aids, which are obviously critical to them, we are putting as many as we can in the cabin. Obviously there are certain restrictions with regard to size, but we will put as many mobility aids in the cabin as we possibly can. If we can't put it in the cabin—for example, if it's too large—we'll put it in the cargo bay, but we have special procedures that we've put in place to ensure that it's protected. It's packaged differently and it will come off as a priority item, so it will come off first when the plane arrives.

More importantly, we have put a process in place so that if a mobility aid goes in the cargo bay, we will in fact ensure—double-check and triple-check—that it is in the cargo bay. There is an app that customers can access that shows them that to give them comfort that their mobility aid will be at the destination when they arrive.

In this last case, with regard to this process that we have just introduced to ensure that mobility aids are in fact in the cargo bay if they're too large to fit in the cabin, we will delay a plane until we are certain that the mobility aid is in fact in the cargo bay.

With regard to your point about training, we have always had training, but we've retained some expert consultants who have looked at our training and have enhanced our training. We will be putting in annual recurring training for our 10,000 airport employees, one segment on processes and a second one on attitude, to a great degree, which is also very important.

[Louise Chabot, Bloc, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

You are talking about consulting experts, but will we see, in your practices—

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Tracy Gray]

Thank you, Ms. Chabot. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Rousseau.

We'll now go to Ms. Zarrillo.

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Rousseau, for being here today. My questions are for you and not for your staff.

Mr. Rousseau, have you ever been deplaned physically by a baggage handler?

[Michael Rousseau]

No, of course not.