Transport Committee on Oct. 1st, 2024

[Bruno Paradis]

We wouldn't be able to engage in any competition right now because there is no one here. In the only times where we've had competition, the two services disappeared precisely because we didn't have enough passengers for either business to be viable. We're currently trying to establish regulations in order to reserve timeslots to prevent carriers from competing with each other.

I have to admit that, all too often in the past, when a carrier was enjoying a certain amount of success here in the region, Air Canada stepped in and offered very low prices, which undermined the competition and attracted passengers to Air Canada. Six months or a year later, we simply had no more services. Consequently, we're trying, through regulations, to establish schedules to prevent this kind of unfair competition from a major carrier tapping into a market that's being exploited by a smaller carrier.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Mr. Rogers..

Thank you, Mr. Paradis.

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

Thanks, Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

I now turn the floor over to Mr. Barsalou‑Duval for two and a half minutes.

[Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Bloc, Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

When we asked Ms. Wright about competition, she mentioned that having many carriers attempting to occupy a small market can be a problem because there may not necessarily be a volume large enough to support many carriers.

You just told us more or less the same thing, Mr. Paradis.

I know that, at one point, you worked on the Régionair project and tried to find a solution to that problem. The project may have been somewhat similar or even akin to the one that had been developed by the Union des municipalités du Québec, the UMQ. The aim was to allow the regions to have management boards under which services would be provided by tender. The objective was to offer the possibility of a free market, but, at the same time, to favour the most competitive carrier. A kind of service exclusivity was also proposed. If I'm not mistaken, that's a solution that you and the UMQ prefer.

Where does that project stand? What obstacles lie in the way of that kind of solution, if that's what local actors want?

[Bruno Paradis]

Now we're working on the 2.0 version of that idea. Yes, the objective was to promote one-off competition in which various carriers could request to provide a service. That's what we would like. The parties would compete over a precise period of time, and a contract would be let for a number of years. In order to offer a good price, bidders would nevertheless have to offer a service over a certain number of years.

What we were hoping for at the time was to go back to a bidding process every three to five years. Competition would therefore take place during that time.

You should know that it's impossible for us to have two or three carriers competing, as Ms. Wright mentioned, because we don't have the critical mass to fill that type of aircraft.

As for the project, earlier I mentioned that we had brought together a group of socio‑economic actors in the region. We wanted to develop as clear an idea of the situation as possible before we could move forward.

Some legal problems have now arisen. There are some things that you can't do as a municipal entity. You have to be a business or to proceed by calls for tender in a way. There are legal obstacles to our approach at both the federal and provincial levels.

[Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Bloc, Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC]

Since we're talking about the federal government, would you please tell us precisely about those legal hurdles? Is there any way for us to help you clarify the solutions you're proposing, by taking certain measures, for example, or by working with this committee?

[Bruno Paradis]

As far as I can remember, I would have to be a carrier to be able to offer charter flights. In fact, we're currently limited as an entity. I'm not allowed to do it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you, Mr. Paradis and Mr. Barsalou‑Duval.

Next we have Ms. Idlout.

Ms. Idlout, the floor is yours. You have two and a half minutes, please.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

Qujannamiik.

I want to ask a couple of more questions of Susan regarding approaches and visibility.

I've heard from Calm Air that they're quite concerned with the changes that are being made to the regulations, because right now, for example, in Baker Lake, the visibility that's allowed is half a mile before a pilot can choose to make an approach, whereas, if the regulations were changed, it would be two miles of visibility. Their concern is that there are already a lot of cancellations that happen because of the lack of visibility.

I wonder if you could describe for us what kind of impact the visibility regulations would have, maybe because of the lack of weather reporting.

[Susan Wright]

I'd have to say that I don't think I could comment on that in terms of the changing regulations. I do know that some airports have different clearances. I know, for example, that here in Norman Wells, it's a quarter of a mile visibility, because they have a certain approach called an LPV, I believe.

I think across the north I'm just not too familiar with the different approaches in different communities. In our particular area, we just got instrument approaches into some of our communities in the last eight years or so.

I wish I could comment, but I don't know enough about it. Myles Cane would be a great person to talk to about that. He'll be on next week, I think. You may have to ask him.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

Okay.

Maybe you can answer this question: Apparently southern airports can rely on 24-hour weather reporting. However, in Nunavut, the weather reporting is quite limited. It goes to either five o'clock or to some time after 10.

Could you tell us about your experience? Do you have reliable weather reporting that you can use? What kind of impact does that have—not being able to rely on weather reporting?

[Susan Wright]

Yes, weather reporting is essential for the landing of any aircraft. Any pilot, before they start their flight, usually seeks out the weather and gets the reporting. They're speaking to either a CARS agent or they're looking at a camera system. For example, in one of our communities, Cold Lake, it's a camera weather-reporting system. It's reporting the weather, the altimeter and all the settings the pilot needs to the pilot when they're in the aircraft.

Some of the communities have traditional agents who are only there until five o'clock. Unfortunately, after five o'clock, they're not able to get the weather unless they have another.... There is a report they can get from them, but it only lasts for one hour.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you—

[Susan Wright]

If your flight is longer than an hour, it doesn't apply.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Ms. Wright.

Next we'll go to Dr. Lewis.

Dr. Lewis, the floor is yours. You have five minutes.

[Leslyn Lewis, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

Good afternoon, Mr. Paradis.

Thank you for being with us today.

You mentioned rampant inflation. What impact has inflation had on your business?

[Bruno Paradis]

The consequences are actually many. For example, there was a salary increase, and the prices of fuel and scrub brushes rose, among other things. Those brushes are extremely important in our regions.

The costs of all components have risen because competition among suppliers in the region isn't very strong.

[Leslyn Lewis, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

Thank you.

Has the carbon tax affected your business?

[Bruno Paradis]

Before discussing the carbon tax, you have to discuss the various governments' long-term vision of how the regions will be developed. That's what matters most in a region like ours. All governments often adopt shortsighted policies.

If we want to inhabit the various lands dynamically, we have to have a long-term policy and vision. That's what I think we need most, before considering introducing taxes or programs.

[Leslyn Lewis, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

I see.

You mentioned the fact that teachers are refusing to teach in the regions and that other professionals reject the idea of going there to offer their services.

Do you know why professionals are refusing to go into those regions?

[Bruno Paradis]

It's because they don't want to drive. It's a long trip. Since they receive offers of employment from everywhere, they simply choose other regions.

People used to travel to the regions by airplane. It was like going on a vacation. They came to enjoy the St. Lawrence River. Today, when they're asked to drive for seven hours to get to the region they simply refuse to provide services or courses, or even medical care. Consequently, patients have to be transported from the region to the major centres. Ultimately, those trips are very expensive. We have fewer services in the region as a result.

[Leslyn Lewis, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

Thank you.

Ms. Wright, you mentioned the impossibility of keeping up with regulations over the past four years.

Can you expand on this and give some examples of how these regulations are impacting your business?

[Susan Wright]

Thank you for that. The elephant in the room is the flight and duty regulations.

In order to implement the flight and duty regulations, we had to employ more people to manage the hours for the pilots and we had to hire more crew schedulers. We had to have people constantly auditing because of the incredible intricacy of these flight and duty regulations. They are night-and-day different from the ones that we previously had.

The number of things we have to track is just so much more cumbersome. We lost 30% of every pilot's hours, so we had to hire more people, which just increases the cost of everything along down the line, like training two pilots on a plane instead of one. There's just such a huge economic impact of these regulations to us.

The other regulations that I was talking about are mainly just administrative resources for legal services, for training all of our staff members and all of the development of the manuals. We're talking about $50,000 sometimes to create a manual. There are lot of regulations that come out, and it's all just happening so fast. I've been in this company for 15 years. It's very fast.

My message is that those people who are developing these manuals and implementing these regulations need to also be focused on providing low-cost options to our consumers and finding a way to make travel better.

[Leslyn Lewis, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

Do you have any idea of what those low-cost options would be? What could be reduced to facilitate more optimization of your business?