Industry committee  The difficulty you have is that all of the bills are trying to slice this in a slightly different way, but they're complementary, I think. In relation to the one that we're presently speaking about, from a consumer point of view I think it's going to look ridiculous if our average consumer can't go into an independent repair shop to fix their car and instead be told that no, you have to go to Chrysler to do that.

Industry committee  Thank you. Chair and honourable members, my name is John Lawford. I'm the executive director and general counsel at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre. PIAC is a national non-profit organization and a registered charity. We provide legal and research services on behalf of consumer interests, in particular vulnerable consumer interests concerning the provision of important public services.

Transport committee  I'll just add briefly that the airlines and the airports don't seem to be talking, because when the baggage belt breaks down, the airline can't get the baggage to their customers, who leave, and then they are stuck with the problem. I know that there are disputes between how much rent is paid by the airlines to the airports, but I mean, really, get these folks in a room.

Transport committee  I'm going to throw that to Dr. Lukács, who I think would have that, or maybe Mr. Jack.

Transport committee  We'll be happy to have a look. I think you might find some results in the companies that do claims for European travellers.

Transport committee  I don't think, if you're cherry-picking certain more extensive rights, it will fix the backlog or necessarily result in more compliance by the airlines. Because of the three streams we have in Canada, it's needlessly complicated. Ultimately, the idea is to get rid of those so that there's only extraordinary circumstances as an excuse to not pay the compensation that is otherwise owed.

Transport committee  No. I think that's well within the rules of the CTA. They have done it before. At the start of COVID, they had eight large questions they had to settle about the way they were going to handle COVID questions. There were some 3,000 complaints and they handled all of them, at least with regard to those issues, altogether.

Transport committee  Who's answering that?

Transport committee  Okay. I'll be very brief. I would say that you might want to consider an obligation to serve on certain routes, especially rural routes. I don't believe that's necessarily imposed by the minister or the CTA at the moment. I think that would help. I'll pass it over to Gábor.

Transport committee  I would just say that the data Mr. Jack mentioned will also give us and consumers purchasing power that doesn't exist right now.

Transport committee  Sure. You're raising the costs, and they may well be passed on. Now we're on to the discussion of competition in this country, the airlines, the many efforts to try to bring new airlines online and all the challenges they face. Yes, I think it would increase prices and they would be passed down.

Transport committee  The path we chose lies between two roads. It's the Canadian path, so to speak. We have a three-category regime that differentiates between small and large carriers. Perhaps the issues we had were foreseeable, maybe they weren't, but we can back up and choose another path. It's going to take a lot of effort, help from Parliament and a report recommending it.

Transport committee  The minister can change things quickly by issuing directives to the Canadian Transportation Agency, but I don't know if cabinet is deadlocked or not. In terms of fundamental changes, it's going to take a lot longer.

Transport committee  I wish I were an expert in this area. I will beg off and say I'm not sure that the new Accessible Canada Act has been compared to the regulations in detail. I presume that Transport Canada is doing that and recommending changes to the APPR to match. I've seen the same stories that you've seen.

Transport committee  Absolutely, yes. As long as you can get cabinet and the minister on the same page.