Evidence of meeting #19 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 airports.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Joseph Sparling  President, Air North
Monette Pasher  Interim President, Canadian Airports Council
Anthony Norejko  President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Business Aviation Association
Robin Guy  Senior Director, Transportation, Infrastructure and Regulatory Policy, Canadian Chamber of Commerce
Glenn Priestley  Executive Director, Northern Air Transport Association
Julian Roberts  President and Chief Executive Officer, Pascan Inc.
Yani Gagnon  Executive Vice-President, Pascan Inc.

12:55 p.m.

President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Business Aviation Association

Anthony Norejko

Very early on in the pandemic we pushed very hard to have those take-home test kits. To that question from the member, very specifically, it's just the way that things get done. From our airports, we're creating that back flow of travellers.

I would suggest working with a vendor and responsibly tracking and tracing those individual kits. Assign them as needed to passengers who are entering the country and would then take home—let's call it a “government approved” test, conducted at their destination. That would be one way to move it forward.

That's a way that still recognizes—if we rewind the tape—the desire for the information in a way that is risk-based and still accomplishes the goal of understanding who and what variants are entering the country.

12:55 p.m.

Liberal

Annie Koutrakis Liberal Vimy, QC

Mr. Chair, I would like to record and remind everybody on the panel, our witnesses and all the members of the transport committee, just how well Canada has performed in preventing COVID deaths as compared with other countries in relative terms.

I think we always maintained that our number one priority was to keep Canadians safe and to keep the transportation system safe and our supply chains. I think we should never lose sight of how well our country has done as compared with other jurisdictions worldwide.

12:55 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Peter Schiefke

Thank you very much, Ms. Koutrakis.

That concludes the committee testimony for today.

I would like to thank once again all of our witnesses for their time. This concludes the meeting today.

The meeting is adjourned.