Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I felt some necessity to respond, my colleague from Windsor West having sort of leveraged a couple of nods onto the record.
I was one of the folks diverted to London the other night because of the big lightning storm in Toronto. Notwithstanding having been involved in that, it's not always wise to get emotionally involved in an issue. We have to be able to think this through clearly. On balance, I think, prior to taking off, we were advised by the airline of the options we had. Those were to fly out the following morning, to fly out of Detroit, if necessary, or to take Via Rail, which would honour the ticket. So there were options available to consumers before the flight actually left. During the flight itself, I think the only frustration, really, was not having ample communication from the pilot as to what was happening. When we had those moments, I found that most folks sort of had an understanding of what was going on and were pretty good with it.
So we don't want to leap off the deep end on this one. What's important here is that a motion was passed by the House. Whether or not that's binding on the government, the government is taking it seriously in terms of response.
I think the first step is to know our existing rights. I was actually questioned on the airline as to some of those things. I'll concede my own shortcomings on this; I didn't know what all our rights were. So I think it's important that we bring Canadians up to speed on this, as well as the rest of us, as a first step. So in that sense, I'm comfortable with where the government is going on this particular issue.
The step after that is that if we have some gaps, let's look at them and address them. I don't think that's, in the words of our colleague across the way, somehow ceding this, hoping that something gets done. I just think it's a logical progression. The first thing we do is look at what those assembled rights are, at what exists currently. From there we begin to move on. The motion itself doesn't obligate this committee to take up the study of that at this particular point. I think it's too early for that type of step. Let's see how this unfolds.
I'm working with the parliamentary secretary on what some of my frustrations were in my personal experience with this. But let's just take it in logical steps. I think we should resist, only a couple of days after a frustrating situation, politicizing the event or the frustrations. Let's be deliberate about this. Let's have the committee continue to move on the things we're already undertaking. As Mr. Jean suggests, this can wait until the fall, I think. Let's see what our rights are, and let's move logically from there. Even I, having been in a situation recently, am satisfied that it's okay and will continue to work with the parliamentary secretary on it.