Thank you, Mr. Chair, and my thanks to both of our witnesses appearing before us today.
Mr. Prud'homme, your justification for not needing consumer protection legislation for airline passengers appears to be based on the diminishing number of complaints put before the airline ombudsman. You seem to regard this as a clear indication that this is not justified.
Do you think that some of this may be because the office of the airline ombudsman had its powers dramatically changed around 2005, and because 2008, which was the year complaints were lowest, was also the year that “Flight Rights Canada” was introduced?
“Flight Rights Canada” was supposed to be the catch-all policy to prevent and to arbitrate consumer complaints in the airline industry. But we've come to learn through documents presented to members of Parliament, and through CanWest News Service's Sarah Schmidt, that “Flight Rights Canada” has an entire budget of $15,000 to publicize this initiative. Canadians don't even know what their rights are.
Does that affect the number of complaints, in your opinion?