Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen members of the committee. Thank you for giving us this opportunity today to share our observations with you.
I have been working as a lawyer at Option consommateurs for 10 years. Created in 1983, Option consommateurs is a non-profit association whose mission is to help consumers and defend their rights. As such, we receive thousands of legal information requests every year from people experiencing difficulties with merchants, including in the travel industry.
Furthermore, since the beginning of the pandemic, we have received a record number of calls and emails from consumers not only from Quebec, but also from elsewhere in Canada, asking us for information to get their plane tickets refunded.
This is the situation we want to talk to you about today. To us, the situation is very clear: Canadian consumers whose flights were cancelled because of the pandemic must be reimbursed.
Although the pandemic has been difficult for everyone—both consumers and merchants—its impact is not the suspension of applicable laws. The solution offered by most airlines, travel credits, is unacceptable and unfair.
We think it is high time for federal authorities to play their role and protect Canadian consumers.
Under the pretext of force majeure, airlines have assumed the right to keep clients' money without providing them the service they paid for. So far, both the Canadian Transportation Agency and the government have limited themselves to maintaining that the Air Passenger Protection Regulations do not oblige airlines to reimburse their clients for cancelled flights.
However, it is important to specify that those regulations are not exclusive or comprehensive in their provision of all the obligations airlines have. Other laws and regulations impose restrictive obligations and grant the authorities the power to take action.
For example, the Transportation Act and its relevant regulations give the CTA the power to get involved, especially when a tariff contains an unreasonable condition. Yet we are struggling to see how, in a law society, it could be considered reasonable for a business to impose a condition on consumers whereby it can keep their money without being obliged to provide them with the service they paid for.
However, there is more to this. Airline contracts are also subject to provincial laws. In Quebec, where we are the most familiar with the legislation, both the Quebec Civil Code and the Consumer Protection Act contain provisions that make it clear that airlines have the obligation to refund their clients for flights that had to be cancelled because of the pandemic.
We don't understand why the government is silent on this issue. Both the government and the CTA must enforce the laws and regulations and force airlines to refund their clients.
What is more, a declaratory bill—in other words, Bill C-249—was recently introduced in the House of Commons. That bill reiterates passengers' right to be reimbursed for flights that are cancelled for reasons beyond the control of the carrier.
The travel credits offered by airlines in no case constitute a valid solution in the current context, where households' financial health is being tested.
Since the beginning of the crisis, we have received hundreds of calls from consumers who are worried, disappointed and irritated about being unable to get their money back—often in the thousands of dollars—while they need it. We have actually launched a petition to force airlines to reimburse consumers. That petition has garnered 32,000 signatures.
We are being told that airlines are facing revenue losses owing to the pandemic. We don't doubt that. However, this pandemic has also hit industries other than the air transportation industry. It is not up to consumers to fund airline companies.
Many consumers are struggling to keep their heads above water. The measures implemented to help families have certainly been a great help, but they do not ensure the financial health of households over the long term. People need their money, and they need it now.
It is clear that consumers are being manipulated in this case. On the one hand, airlines are saying they cannot refund tickets without government assistance. On the other hand, the government says it is prepared to negotiate assistance, but assistance that would be conditional on consumers being reimbursed. During this time, nothing has been happening. It is high time for things to change.
Thank you.