Thank you very much to the committee for this invitation this afternoon. CAA was founded in 1913 to represent the interests of motorists originally, but the world has evolved since then and so have we. We have 6.5 million members today from coast to coast, and the services we offer them extend well beyond emergency roadside assistance. We're very proud to be named one of Canada's top two most trusted brands three years in a row by the Gustavson School of Business at the University of Victoria.
Today, we're also one of Canada's largest leisure travel agencies, through our store network and online.
That said, we are still a not-for-profit, member-driven organization that is, at its heart, an advocate for the Canadian traveller.
At CAA we don't sell business travel, so prior to the pandemic our travel specialists worked with average Canadian air passengers every day. When the pandemic hit, they worked tirelessly to bring home our members who were stranded overseas.
This understanding of the business allowed us to take a strong, informed position as the air passenger right regime was being established in Canada.
Unfortunately, the pandemic hit soon afterwards, and we saw that the regime, the APPR, was inadequate to protect consumers. That's because the regime carves out events beyond a carrier's control from any requirement to provide a refund. In retrospect, this was a huge mistake.
Since March, CAA has been pushing for access to refunds for Canadians left holding the bag when their flights got cancelled due to COVID-19. Thousands of Canadians were left with multi-thousand-dollar holes in their finances, through no fault of their own.
Essentially, they were forced to provide interest-free loans to the carriers at a time when they could least afford it.
We welcome the government's commitment to getting passengers their money back. We will be watching closely to make sure this commitment is honoured and that passengers can get cash refunds quickly. Keep in mind that thousands of people have been out of pocket already for six months or longer. For those who have been hard hit economically by the pandemic, this is especially unfair.
At the same time, we recognize that the carriers are struggling and that Canadians need them to survive. In many other jurisdictions governments have already stepped in to make sure their carriers remain viable, but also that passengers are not left to finance them.
We are pleased the government of Canada has finally agreed to do the same thing.
While some carriers have refunded some fares, the vast majority of travellers affected by COVID cancellations have not received a penny. This patchwork, in which the wealthy and business travellers who can afford refundable tickets get better treatment than do average citizens, is exactly what the APPR was supposed to end.
CAA urges the federal government to ensure that refunds are made available in a timely fashion. COVID-19 has brought significant financial hardship upon average Canadian families, and it is only fair that they can get cash refunds if they want them.
We must remember that these flights were cancelled through no fault of the passenger.
We urge this committee to focus not just on rectifying this past injustice, however, but also on making sure it never happens again. This is for the benefit not only of passengers but of the economy as well. Getting Canadians back on planes in large numbers depends on health measures, absolutely, but also on consumer confidence about their purchase. What average Canadian would voluntarily spend thousands of dollars on tickets for their family today knowing they might forfeit all their money if there is another unpredictable lockdown at home or at their destination? The government should ensure that in the future, flights cancelled due to government health warnings or shutdowns are automatically refundable.
As mentioned, we're also a travel agency, and we know that travel agents should not lose out on commissions owed to them. Agents did their work, and in many cases the carriers have been holding their money since the spring. Consumers should be made whole, but we feel the government has responsibility to agents as well.
Finally, let me briefly outline CAA's other priorities for air passenger rights, which we urge you to consider. While the pandemic revealed a major shortcoming that should be fixed, it remains a fact that the APPR brought Canada its first industry-wide code of conduct for airlines.
Let us point out that the United States and the European Union already had similar regimes for a decade or more.
The regulations came into full force only in mid-December of last year. In the first three months, prior to the pandemic, 11,000 complaints were filed. While the lack of air travel performance data leaves us flying blind, we believe it's still too early to fully grade the regime. Most of the complaints filed haven't even been addressed. We need to let the APPR run for a further period and then grade it. We do not believe it needs to be reopened at this time, other than to address the COVID-19 refund situation.
Our other issues include the real cost of air travel to middle-class Canadians including, for example, airport fees and à la carte pricing; making sure the government lives up to its commitment to provide public air travel performance data in a useful and timely fashion; making sure the CTA has adequate resources to enforce the APPR; and CATSA reform so passengers can move more efficiently through security.