Transport committee  Forgive me if I don't know what power this committee has to make the minister move. I'm presuming that you can rush out a report as quickly as possible. That would be appreciated and, ideally, yes, the technical recommendations I'm making—and they're not that technical—would be something that could get under his nose.

Transport committee  I think we are in agreement on those comments. I would add just one comment with respect to telecommunications complaints. If you can't resolve complaints with the providers, you have the option of referring them to the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-Television Services (CCTS), and it will treat them like their own complaints and refer them to the providers.

Transport committee  No, it's not reasonable. If I may, I will ask Mr. Lukács to answer this question, because he has much more experience in this area.

Transport committee  I brought up a few immediate changes that are a little technical to eliminate some of the hassle for passengers. To a larger extent, I feel we need a new bill to amend the Canada Transportation Act, because there are loopholes. We need to introduce a more effective system, like the existing regime in the European Union.

Transport committee  I'm sorry if I was unclear. I will be happy to provide our recommendations in written form to the committee so that you can read them. What I was referring to is that there are already two different powers. There's one for the minister to direct the CTA to make new regulations under subsection 86.11(2).

Transport committee  We absolutely agree with Air Passenger Rights that it's crucial the burden of proof be shifted. If we manage to put the onus on the airlines, that will solve a lot of problems with the regulations. However, we also have structural issues related to the three categories, as I said—

Transport committee  Thank you, Mr. Boulerice. I was going to say that we don't need the three categories. The European Union regime doesn't include these little differences and it works very well. As Mr. Lukács said, most of the time when there are issues with flights, all passengers are given a very clear course of action.

Transport committee  I do, and I agree with Dr. Lukács's calculus that if you have a 1% sort of flouting of the regulation, you have to administer fines. In other words, if someone isn't paid their compensation, there has to be a separate penalty phase or enforcement fine from the CTA, which it has the power to carry out, and that has to be high.

Transport committee  Yes. The first obligation they feel, of course, is to profitably operating. The negative externalities of running too many flights without adequate staff or enough co-operation among these shared accountability partners means that the consumers have to absorb any difficulties first and most painfully.

Transport committee  At the moment, I guess they are paid by taxpayers through the CTA. There is another model. You can have an ombudsman's service that is paid for by the industry, such as in telecommunications or in banking and finance with the OBSI. That's another model. I believe when we did our first paper for Mr.

Transport committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Honourable members, my name is John Lawford. I'm the executive director and general counsel at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre. PIAC has advocated in the field of air passenger protection for over 20 years. Until just before this Christmas travel season, PIAC had hoped that the air passenger protection regulations were adequate.

Industry committee  I know that the European Union likes regulation. That's the way they're handling this. They believe it's onside for international treaties like WIPO. I think we can move to provide more of a repair right, and there is a middle ground here; there is a middle ground. The other countries that you mentioned I'm afraid I'm not as familiar with.

Industry committee  I'm not as much of an expert as Ms. Lovrics, but I will say that this is the chickens coming home to roost. We have a very aggressive copyright protection scheme that we've agreed to internationally and that I believe the tide is turning on. Consumers and others are starting to see that it's too aggressive.

Industry committee  Again, I think you have to go back to what we're talking about in terms of what “repair” means. If the concern is that repairs that go beyond the original manufacturers' stipulations for how the product is supposed to operate so that it's overclocked or modified in some way that's not in the original specifications, I can see that being offside.

Industry committee  I will.