Hello, committee members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today.
I come to you from the traditional territory of the Sahtu Dene and Métis people, where I work for an airline that is proudly majority owned by the indigenous people we serve, called North-Wright Airways. My perspective today will give you insight into operating a regional connector airline in Canada's most remote regions with respect to the Competition Act and air travel in Canada's north.
We are an airline that provides essential scheduled and chartered services, and the largest aircraft we are licensed to operate has seating for 19 passengers. We service eight communities between Yellowknife and Inuvik, with six of those being off the road system. We are the only air service provider in five of those communities. Our entire operation is based in a fly-in-only town of 800 people called Norman Wells, where we are central to our service network. When we think about competition, we think more about continuously improving the scale of our operation to be able to grow and provide a low-cost option for our customers. We connect largely through the hub of Yellowknife.
In Canada, there are a wide range of operators doing very similar work. We represent a very small portion of Canada's aviation community; our network is very limited in size and scope with respect to the industry as a whole. Across the north, we see very similar challenges to other operators, so we know that our challenges are shared.
In our region, we face unique challenges that have an impact, such as basic airport and navigational infrastructure, an incredibly volatile and inadequate supply of fuel, significant fuel costs, skilled labour shortages and a very limited market to draw from.
The runways are short, typically around 3,900 feet long, and are gravel, which really restricts us as to what types of aircraft we can operate a scheduled flight with. Essentially, we are extremely restricted in terms of how much we can take, depending on temperature. We face seasonal disruptions on the gravel runways due to damage to our propellers from the slush, the airports have basic navigation that doesn't let us get all of the weather reports we need, and we face crippling fuel shortages that occur due to disruptions with our historically low water levels on the Mackenzie River.
These are all examples of very real and legitimate logistical challenges that inhibit our ability to act to our full potential, let alone create an environment for more competition. Additional costs that arise from these factors, in addition to inflation and the U.S. dollar, are passed along to our customers. Our ability to service with a low-cost model is limited, if not impossible. Our economies of scale are just so limited.
Operators are also generally very small family-orientated companies and have a hard time handling the incredible pace of change within our federally regulated sector. The past four years alone have meant more work on management to adhere to new regulations, versus working to grow and better offer services to our customers, who rely on us to do so. These regulatory changes are all significant and are beneficial to us in the federally regulated sector, but it's important to recognize that the pace of new regulations coming into effect draws a lot of resources from smaller airlines to keep up. The past four years have consumed resources in adhering to big regulation changes, such as flight and duty regulations, pay equity, workplace violence, disabilities and access regulations, CTA passenger rights and so forth. A lot of these new regulations come with a lot of fines, and we are definitely struggling to keep up with this systematic regulation change, which has a huge impact on us.
The new flight and duty regulations have had the largest impact on operators like ourselves to be able to grow or continue with the same level of work that we had in previous years. We have actually become less competitive, and I see that with other operators as well.
North-Wright is committed to collaborating and working with all levels of government to give a perspective on the ground level of how operations in the north are difficult and how the Competition Act can reflect that.
In addition, we believe that, moving forward, there needs to be more of a focus on things such as paving and increasing the length of runways; navigational systems that support airlines 24-7; proper funding for airport amenities to support things such as de-icing services within Canada's north; and expanding road systems, such as the Mackenzie Valley Highway, to improve access to fuel markets and provide a more dependable supply chain for fuel and supplies.
As well, we need to focus on understanding the strain of new regulations on small companies that are doing big work in regional centres like ours and realizing the impact that it has there.
We also need to work to provide some sort of relief support program for airlines that are operating in these communities. Maybe there's a community that does have competition in that community. How can those companies be supported when there are fuel shortages due to climate problems? We believe in protecting regional airlines to account for their small operating area, where competition is not viable and may have long-term impacts to the communities they serve.
Thank you so much. It's been my pleasure.