Evidence of meeting #106 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was highway.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Schiefke
Thank you, Mr. Barsalou‑Duval and Minister.
Next we have Mr. Bachrach for two and a half minutes.
Go ahead, please, sir.
NDP
Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Minister, did you personally reach out to Flair Airlines after they abandoned over 100 passengers in Mexico last weekend?
NDP
Liberal
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
Flair, like any other company, has to provide them with a minimum of stuff, such as a food allocation, and it has to book them—
Liberal
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
Can I finish?
Actually, the good news is that they're all out of Mexico. They're all back in Canada.
They had to provide them, as soon as possible, with another flight with the same company or with another company.
We're totally off topic, but it's an important question, even though it's not roads.
That's why we put passengers' rights in place. Then we realized that there were some loopholes. Then we asked the—what is OTC in English?—
Deputy Minister, Department of Transport
It's the Canadian Transportation Agency.
Liberal
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
Now we are waiting on them for the recommendations, but airline companies have to do better.
NDP
Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Was Flair in contravention of the air passenger protection regulations?
You're saying that there are rules and they need to follow them and stuff. You've used up a significant amount of the time.
Flair is clearly in contravention of the air passenger protections. I think that's what your deputy is whispering in your ear right now.
What did you do on behalf of these passengers? They had to find their own way back to Canada.
Liberal
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
First of all, I'm not the person who's going to come here to defend the big airlines. I think they are able to do that themselves. Actually, I think they can all do better.
It's not up to me to decide in which cases the company is responsible or not. The passenger who was transited and got stuck there has to put in a complaint—
Liberal
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
Then the agency will determine if they're right or not and make sure that they are compensated.
NDP
Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Okay, fantastic.
My next question is for Mr. Bijimine.
What is the current backlog of complaints at the CTA? Give us a number.
Serge Bijimine Assistant Deputy Minister, Policy, Department of Transport
We are at around 70,000.
NDP
Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
It's 70,000 complaints? This is absolutely astounding.
Air Canada sent me an email and they said it might take up to three years for the CTA to get to my complaint, so I should take $150 instead of the thousands that they owe me.
Does three years sound like about the right wait time?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Policy, Department of Transport
They do have a new process that they are putting in place that basically fast-tracks a lot of these complaints. We've seen a lot of progress over the past few months.
NDP
Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
The backlog is growing. How can you call that progress?
Liberal
Assistant Deputy Minister, Policy, Department of Transport
There have been more complaints, but the time it takes has actually gone down by quite a bit.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Schiefke
Thank you very much.
The next speaker is Mrs. Vien.
Mrs. Vien, the floor is yours for five minutes.