Transport committee  There are two possible solutions, two schools of thought. Perhaps Michael could explain the practice in Ontario to you, whereby travel agents have a choice to either include the total cost and the details or the total cost alone in their advertisements. We want consumers to se

Transport committee  I will refer to how things are done today. First, I am not sure that you would be protected through your credit card. I recall when Jetsgo went bankrupt, that we met with credit card company representatives. Some paid, others did not. So there is no certainty on that front. I a

Transport committee  Yes, indeed, it did pay. The institution compensated the client. If the client claimed compensation from the fund, he had to prove that he did not claim compensation from the institution which issued the credit card. So the consumer was compensated from the compensation fund, but

Transport committee  Mr. Lussier, we often hear about private insurance. People say that it's always possible to buy private insurance. In fact, Option consommateurs— Marie-Hélène can talk about this—conducted a study on the subject. There are three insurance companies which sell insurance in case a

Transport committee  I can speak to B.C. and Quebec. The B.C. fund is more recent than the Ontario one. It was put in place, I'd say, two or three years ago. It's also funded by the industry. It's funded by the travel agencies and the wholesalers. It's also a certain percentage of their gross sales

Transport committee  The B.C. fund and the Ontario fund are funded by the industry. They are funded by the travel agencies and the wholesalers. The Quebec fund is a consumer-paid fund. It's the only one that's paid by the consumer. Whenever a consumer buys a travel service from a travel agency, the

Transport committee  There's no cap.

Transport committee  Yes, but those funds are recent. The Quebec fund was put in place two years ago, and the B.C. fund approximately three years ago. So those funds are quite recent.

Transport committee  No. In B.C. they have planned that in fact a licensee will stop paying after three years. So if you renew, a new licensee will pay, but it will be for three years only. So it's a certain form of cap.

Transport committee  Plus the advertising.

Transport committee  If I may add something, this is the same type of information, or part of it, that we had in the annual report with the air travel commissioner. That was something we were able to point out to consumers when they were asking if this new airline or that airline was reliable. We've

Transport committee  Our recommendation does go in that direction, indeed. We do not believe that Air Transat, for instance, which is subject to these regulations for chartered flights, is being penalized because it has to put money aside. Travel agents have to do that in the three main provinces: Qu

Transport committee  It is also important to note that passengers who do not go through travel agents in provinces where there are compensation funds, such as in Ontario and in Quebec, for instance, and who reserve directly on an airline's Internet site are not compensated and are not protected by th

Transport committee  It's the same thing in Quebec. The two biggest markets for travel are Quebec and Ontario.

Transport committee  We have heard certain things. For instance, the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies receives calls from consumers asking with whom they may file a complaint. We refer them to the Canadian Transportation Agency, in the same way that we used to refer them to the Air Travel Comp