Transport committee  We have a strong regional carrier in our region, PAL Airlines. They've actually been growing throughout the pandemic. We're pleased to have that partner, but our big issue is really connecting our region to the rest of Canada and internationally and globally when we do recover. We didn't really have the problem of no competition here.

Transport committee  I think there isn't an Atlantic Canadian who wouldn't be pleased about the safety precautions that were taken. Now we're 10 months in and we have more tools in the tool box. I think we've seen Nova Scotia expand on a rapid testing strategy, and I think we need to find new ways to test, trace, repeat and do that again and again and find safe ways to restart this sector.

Transport committee  I think isolation would describe it in some instances for our communities. When you have to take additional flights, spend additional nights, and add days to your travel to get to work when you're working in essential services right now, I think it's a very challenging situation, as is seeing that your airport is completely shut down with no service and you do not know when it will come back.

Transport committee  Yes. We heard the support being announced in November. That's what was going to come, sector-specific support, and here we are at the end of January still waiting, and still wondering what's going to be there for our region and for the sector across the country. Yes, I think there's a lot of concern.

Transport committee  I'll start, and then I'll turn it over to Derrick. Mr. Chair and members of the committee, thank you for the invitation to speak to you today. There are 12 airports in Atlantic Canada that are part of our association. It is all of the airports in the region with commercial traffic—or should I now say, the ones that used to have passenger traffic prior to the pandemic, because sadly that is the situation we are in.

Finance committee  I think airports all worry about the privatization of Toronto, for example. Halifax is the hub for the airports in our region, but Toronto is also the major hub for Atlantic Canada, and even Halifax as well. I think there is concern about what privatization would look like and whether it would increase costs overall to the system.

Finance committee  It's something that the Canadian Airports Council looked at closely to see at what point the airport can afford some form of additional rent. It was clear that around that three million mark it became—

Finance committee  Yes, a little bit stronger, for sure, so they could afford more.

Finance committee  I think our association views that our airports are run quite well. Even to follow up on Mr. Kmiec's question, they go above and beyond even their boards. They create committees around air service development and noise, and reach out to the communities. They are part of their chambers of commerce, part of the tourism industry association of each province and city, and the country.

Finance committee  The Emerson report was great, and there are a lot of great recommendations in there. In terms of privatization, they looked at four different models. Our view, in terms of a for-profit corporation, would be that there are not any airports in our region that it would work for. I think all of our airports have less than five million passengers.

Finance committee  Those airports just began paying rent. If you take the example of greater Moncton, I think they're going to have to pay around $500,000 a year in rent. It's a big item off their bottom line. Airports are not-for-profits and that's money they can't invest in their runways in order to grow cargo to ship our lobster, for example.

Finance committee  The national system airports operate under the Canada Transportation Act, the national airport policy, and they follow those rules very clearly. The federal government has appointees, the community has appointees, and the airport board is filled with community members. These boards are run by the community.

Finance committee  In Atlantic Canada in 2016, five of our airports began paying rent to the federal government, and they are smaller airports: greater Moncton, Gander, Charlottetown, Fredericton, and Saint John. Most of these airports have fewer than 500,000 passengers. It's an additional burden on them, an additional tax that has to be passed through the passengers.

Finance committee  No, they're not public, but the airports issue annual reports and they have a public meeting. In terms of the lease agreement with the federal government, they're accountable to one public meeting a year.

Finance committee  At the bigger airports, obviously, you have the most volume, so the biggest chunk of screening resources goes to those four airports, and then they top them up. They're actually investing and paying additional to what passengers are paying for screening resources. The smaller airports just don't have the ability to invest further in those screening resources, so it is a challenge.