I think what our region learned, what northern regions learned, is that air transportation is not a luxury but rather a necessity.
The first thing we did when COVID hit was cut back our schedules. Within a week, we heard from the government, “My gosh, we need more service. We have medical supplies to move. We have medical travellers to move.” We added back service, even though it wasn't paying its way. Much like the situation in Quebec, we were also very fortunate that the government recognized the essential nature of air transportation, particularly in remote regions. I think that's a lesson Canada can learn going forward. We're not like more populous regions where there are very large volumes of traffic.
Air transportation in Canada is almost like a public utility, particularly in remote regions, and I think we have to treat it as such. We don't have toll highways in general in Canada. That's regarded as infrastructure that's for the general good of Canadians, and it's funded out of general revenues. I think air transportation and air transportation infrastructure should be funded in a similar manner so that all Canadians have an ability to travel seamlessly and affordably between any cities in Canada and all Canadians have access to major centres in the south and, in fact, to the rest of the world.
As has been expressed before, aviation is an economic enabler. I think that's a lesson we learned from COVID. If we knew it before, it maybe wasn't top in our minds, but I think that COVID has perhaps elevated the importance of aviation.