Mr. Chair, I think the folks seeking compensation should and, under the APPR, must turn to the airline to make their claims.
If we're talking about compensation, or the inconvenience associated with flight delays or cancellations, the regulations state that a claim should be made with the airline. But if they can't resolve that claim with the airline, then they can file a complaint with the CTA. We deal with all of those complaints on their merit, as I have said.
As far as the backlog goes, obviously the CTA wants to get through complaints as quickly as it can. As I noted in my opening comments, we received an unprecedented and extraordinary number of complaints after the APPR came into force, 11,000 complaints and another 11,000 since the pandemic began. It's unheard of for a quasi-judicial tribunal to receive 22,000 complaints when just five years earlier it was receiving 800.
We are absolutely mobilizing to get through those complaints as quickly as possible. We have already cleared 6,000 of them since the pandemic began, and we will continue to do everything we can to provide timely service to Canadians.