Thank you very much, colleagues. I appreciate the opportunity to sit on the transport committee. It's not my first time on transport, but I appreciate the opportunity to add some perspective on this.
I would certainly support Mr. Masse's motion. It would build on the momentum that has been brought to the House through the unanimous passage of M-465. It's timely. I understand the minister has indicated that the first method of action on this would be to assemble existing regulation and legislation and publicize that.
In the course of debate in the House on M-465, it was made abundantly clear that there are concerns among members about the adequacy or inadequacy of existing regulations and legislation with regard to consumer protections within the airline industry. A glaring example of this was highlighted in the situation of Cubana airlines on March 10 at Ottawa International Airport.
I'll throw out a rhetorical question. Is it satisfactory that in Canada airline passengers can be held on an aircraft for 12 hours, with no tools available to them to let them off the aircraft after 12 hours? Let's be very clear about this. Is it our objective to simply mimic EU legislation, or is it to provide good, solid consumer protection to Canadians and those who travel within the Canadian airline industry? I think the latter is our objective. We can use the European Union as a model to establish what are currently some best practices internationally. We can also study the fact that Canadians are protected in international travel through both the Warsaw and Montreal conventions. But is that adequate?
On March 10 we were exposed to a very significant circumstance, where 305 passengers at a Canadian airport, after five hours in transit from Havana to Ottawa, were held for an additional 12 hours. One of the passengers had the foresight to dial 911 to contact the RCMP, and the RCMP began a negotiation with the airline and the aircraft's captain to allow those passengers to be released after 17 hours. That highlights an interesting circumstance, because in Canada those passengers had no regulatory or legislative tool or mechanism available to them to insist on their release from the aircraft. Obviously there's a hole there.
I will be the first to say to you that the European Union does not contemplate that circumstance in their legislation, but that does not preclude Canada from contemplating that circumstance. That is why I think it's very helpful to review current legislation and regulations to determine whether or not.... Let me be clear as well that this is not about sticker shock, price tags, or unfair involvement in market forces. This is about issues after you've already received your boarding pass and gone through security. I'm not going to sort of scope this out and nail it down, but this is about when you no longer have economic choices available to you.
If you're on board an aircraft for 17 hours, there's no economic choice available to you. You cannot go to another airline and say you're going to exercise your consumer right to affect your circumstance by buying a ticket on another airline. You're on that aircraft, you're stuck there, and the captain is the one who decides whether or not you get off, along with other elements of the airline industry such as the Ottawa Airport Authority. The bottom line here is that consumers really need protection, especially when there are no market tools available to them, because there is an element of control that is exercised over a passenger, especially after the boarding pass is issued.
That's why I think it would be very relevant and helpful for the committee. My motion was not meant to capture the issue and say this is the way it should be. It was really open-ended to allow a substantive discussion on where this really needs to be and where we need to go as a country.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.