Transport committee  Very quickly, in terms of the foreign ownership, one other piece that we do have to recognize is that there is no WTO for commercial aviation services. There's no one global agreement, so when all the bilaterals go across all the different jurisdictions in which we operate, nationality is part of the agreement.

Transport committee  That's a good question, and I can honestly say we didn't prepare for that one beforehand. I would go back to some things from the earlier questions in terms of establishing overall expectations for consumers and creating a bottom-level base that the industry has to adhere to from a service standard viewpoint.

Transport committee  In terms of the use of the recorders for learning purposes or for broadening safety, to some degree I'll have to check back with the ranch, the head office in Calgary, on some details for you on that. I think one particular aspect of commercial aviation is the specifics of the operations of a flight, so if something is occurring that shouldn't be occurring that information is being conveyed back and forth to our OCC.

Transport committee  Just in terms of WestJet, I'm not aware of any discussions internally about that.

Transport committee  What we're both familiar with, as are most consumers, is the airport improvement fee, which is an add-on to the ticket. Sometimes there is confusion that this is the totality of the funds that then makes its way to that airport for that service. We have what are called “aeronautical fees”, or you might think of them as landing fees or gate fees, that come out of the airfare itself to pay for those services to the airport in question.

Transport committee  I suspect it will. I saw a comment in one of the presentations given on I think it was the first day, and the commentary was that it shouldn't if the air carriers “up their game”. I find that somewhat puzzling. I can't up my game if I'm taking delays because we have guests stuck in CATSA.

Transport committee  I'll have to cast my memory back to some of the questions posed on it. There was a question about what carriers can do in terms of dealing with consumer concerns, and so on, and what's an initial metric. I think the first metric on it would simply be the concentration on the given city pair, or city pairs, that the venture wants to start to get engaged in.

Transport committee  No, I don't think it does. If we are actually collecting the totality of the funds that are appropriate, then no, it shouldn't. To the earlier question a few moments ago, CATSA, in the corporate plan submission—I'm not sure of the exact name of it—that it made to the government in July outlined that it's going to be facing further funding crunches, if the means by which it receives its funds are not consistent with how many passengers they're getting.

Transport committee  It would be very difficult for me to admit in public that I endorse a double standard. Sometimes it happens. Speaking seriously, though, to your question, as a general principle I go back to our brief and our statement that the totality of the ATSC should go towards screening, and it doesn't.

Transport committee  Last week I had an opportunity to help with check in at one of our bases out west, a relatively small base. We do these base visits on a regular basis. We meet with WestJetters and our guests. I had a chance to talk to probably 20 or 30 guests over the course of the day. In answer to your question, based on the conversations I was having with them, although I never actually posed that specific question to them, there's a fundamental thing that occurs and it was quite obvious as I was watching people coming into the airport.

Transport committee  Yes.

Transport committee  In a very rare occurrence, I completely agree with Air Canada. It doesn't happen very often. In all seriousness, yes, I fully agree with that answer. It all goes back to what David was saying in terms of the funding that's provided. From time to time, we get to periods such as Christmastime and the summertime.

Transport committee  The most straightforward thing, and it's a debate as to whether it would actually be germane to what this legislation is attempting to achieve, is the broader issue of aeronautical charges and how we deal with AIFs, airport improvement fees, in Canada, which gets into a broader issue of airport governance.

Transport committee  Thank you Madam Chair and members of the committee for the invitation to speak with you this evening. My name is Mike McNaney and I am vice-president of Industry, Corporate and Airport Affairs at WestJet. Also with me this evening is my colleague, Lorne Mackenzie, senior manager, Regulatory Affairs.