Transport Committee on Nov. 5th, 2020

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Thank you, Deputy Minister, for that excellent response. I really like the comment that for it to matter it has to be implemented. That's fantastic.

I'm going to go back to my colleague Mr. Shipley's comments about rapid testing. Likewise, we've talked a lot on this call today about the implementation in Alberta at the YYC and Coutts crossing. What would have to happen for this to occur nationally?

I know that we touched on it in Mr. Shipley's comments, but what would a national rollout of such a rapid testing process look like at our main ports and main airports, etc.? Could you provide some insight to me as to that?

[Michael Keenan]

That's a great question.

It's hard to predict. It's virtually impossible to say that a national rollout would be x simply because it depends on a whole number of factors. The first is what we learn from the pilots. The second is the decisions by both the federal and provincial governments on where to go with these kinds of issues. The third would be where our international partners go, because it looks like we're heading to a system where there will be some kind of recognition. If the work that's under way at ICAO that Canada is involved with pans out, there would be some sort of rules of the road or rules of the air, if you will, with respect to testing for international flights.

When we look at how to do all that, you come back to first principles and how you enable Canadians to travel by air whether domestically or internationally so that they are safe, given the COVID threat. Testing is part of that, but a lot of things go into that. Among them are the cleaning protocols, the mask wearing. In Canada, in mid-April we required passengers to wear masks on planes. It turns out that if the cleaning protocols of the airlines, the physics of how air moves within a plane and strict protocols like masking all come together, it almost counterintuitively results in air travel being a reasonably low-risk activity for passengers.

We've worked really closely with the industry. There's real leadership in the industry on the part of the airlines. The airports are under extreme financial and economic stress, but they're committed to doing whatever it takes to keep their clients safe. Working with them we've been able to put together the flight plan. Canada has something called the flight plan, which is a national plan for COVID-safe air travel. We see testing fitting into that, but I think the question is making it work from a system perspective. There is progress to make. I think the pathway will depend on some government decisions, some international partner decisions, but also really close collaboration with the industry operators.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Thank you, Mr. Keenan.

I'll now move on to Mr. Sidhu. You have five minutes.

[Maninder Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton East, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Again, I'll be sharing my time with Mr. El-Khoury.

Thank you to the officials for being here today and taking the time to be with us.

Mr. Keenan, is it true that most European and U.S. airlines that mandated reimbursements also provided very significant sector-specific bailout packages to their airlines. For example, Lufthansa in Europe. Can you please comment on that?

[Michael Keenan]

The situation varies dramatically country by country, but a number of European countries have provided significant support, and the German government did make a significant investment in Lufthansa, for example. Air France has done the same with Air France-KLM. The Netherlands is supposed to, but there's a question as to how they'll proceed. The general trend is that there have been some significant investments, different types of financial assistance or taking ownership stakes by a number of European countries and by the U.S. under the CARES Act, which one of the members mentioned earlier.

[Maninder Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton East, ON]

Thank you for that.

Mr. El-Khoury, I'll share my time with you.

[Fayçal El-Khoury, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

Thank you.

Thank you, sir, for being here.

As the minister said before, health and service are going in parallel and are a priority for your department. As you know, the spread of COVID is very important, and we have to take all the steps we can to control it. The best way is to increase the amount of rapid testing. I know my colleague spoke about it, but I insist on hearing from you if it's possible to comment on the pilot project for rapid testing for COVID-19 in all Canadian airports.

What do you expect as a result and how do you see it in other countries? Another thing you spoke about was the incentive for zero-emission vehicles. Can you explain more about it?

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Thank you, Mr. El-Khoury.

Mr. Keenan.

[Michael Keenan]

Sure.

Quickly, on two different topics.... To elaborate on the previous answer, I will say that we do see testing at the point of travel as part of the solution to safe travel and learning how to safely co-exist with COVID for however long that takes. We're hopeful of learning from the pilots—both the Alberta pilot and the Air Canada-McMaster-Toronto airport pilot—a really good baseline of data in terms of how many people are travelling, potentially, with the virus and the effectiveness of testing at different intervals in terms of screening them. Essentially, we're looking for evidence that it is a robust alternative to a quarantine.

This is not something that Transport Canada assesses on its own. In fact, we would defer to the Public Health Agency of Canada and Health Canada on that. I think we're hopeful of learning a fair bit that will inform a number of operational questions in terms of how to conduct testing and make it work in the passenger flow system and how to get recognition between different countries and airlines on test results and airports, and then, finally, inform the decisions that governments can take in terms of how to make adjustments to border policies and quarantine policies.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Thank you, Mr. Keenan.

Thank you, Mr. El-Khoury and Mr. Sidhu.

We have come to 6:15, members. I want to state two things. One, I want to thank the clerk, the analysts, all House personnel, and the interpretation, as well as all those who have made this happen. I know that you all have been under a lot of stress over the last couple of months, but thank you for all you do for all of us.

I also want to take this opportunity to thank Ms. Tod, Mr. Brosseau, Mr. Pilgrim, Ms. Marisetti and the deputy minister, Mr. Keenan, for their time here, as well as members of the committee.

Lastly, I want to wish someone a very special happy birthday. It is Ms. Jaczek's birthday today. She's turned the wonderful age of 29.

[Fayçal El-Khoury, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

She turned 19.

[Churence Rogers, Liberal, Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL]

Happy birthday, Helena.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Helena, you go and have a nice glass of wine now and enjoy the rest of your evening.

[Helena Jaczek, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

Thank you so much, Vance.

[Some hon. members]

Happy birthday.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Have a wonderful evening, everyone.