Transport Committee on June 2nd, 2022

[Suzanne Acton-Gervais]

This has not been discussed directly with the National Airlines Council of Canada. We have not been presented with a direct mechanism. We believe that it is time for the federal mandate to be reviewed. To our knowledge, Canada is currently the only country with a domestic vaccine mandate.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Thank you for the answer.

Mr. Gibbons, do you want to comment on the same thing?

[Andy Gibbons]

Do I? No. I don't want to comment on what is or is not motivating the government. I think everyone wants a safe recovery. We're all partners in public health. The Prime Minister has singled out airlines for their work in curbing the spread of COVID, so I don't think there's any divide there.

I think it goes back to our observation: Is there anything that your constituents cannot currently do in your community based on their vaccination status? I don't think there is anything, except boarding a WestJet aircraft and the tariffs for our very low fares—

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Sure—

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Mr. Bachrach.

Mr. Jeneroux, the floor is yours. You have five minutes.

[Matt Jeneroux, Conservative, Edmonton Riverbend, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's good to see you again.

I thank everybody for taking the time to be here today.

I have three questions that I'd love to get answers to. For the first one, I'm hoping for just a quick yes or no answer.

Maybe I'll start with Mr. Gibbons.

Is it the opinion of your organization that the removing of the legacy pandemic policies—the onsite mandatory random testing, the duplicate questions at customs and, of course, the removal of the vaccine mandate—will improve operational challenges?

[Andy Gibbons]

Yes.

[Matt Jeneroux, Conservative, Edmonton Riverbend, AB]

I'll go to Mr. Rheault with the same question.

Do you believe that will improve operational challenges?

[David Rheault]

Yes.

[Matt Jeneroux, Conservative, Edmonton Riverbend, AB]

Mr. Liebman, will that improve operational challenges?

[Howard Liebman]

I think you'll hear an industry position emerging.

[Matt Jeneroux, Conservative, Edmonton Riverbend, AB]

Perfect.

I was going to go our fourth witness. I assume she'll have the same opinion, but I'll give her the floor just to do that, as well, if she is so inclined.

[Suzanne Acton-Gervais]

Regarding primary areas of federal policy, we would recommend revisiting ArriveCAN, user-pay models, processing credentials for staffing, and legacy pandemic travel restrictions. All of these would help alleviate congestion at airports.

[Matt Jeneroux, Conservative, Edmonton Riverbend, AB]

That's great. Thank you. That's clear from our witnesses here.

Every single airline and the industry present is calling for the removal of on-site mandatory random testing, duplicate questions at customs, and, again, the vaccine mandate.

I want to turn to Mr. Gibbons for my second question. I'll begin with you, and if anybody would like to weigh in, please do. You mentioned, in response to one of the questions, that it would be helpful for every stakeholder to have information on the science being used to make these mandates or these decisions.

Have you been presented with this information by the government?

[Andy Gibbons]

The data we've been presented by the government is the aggregate public data about the general COVID situation that we're in, the state of the pandemic, and the number of cases and hospitalizations.

The Public Health Agency, Mr. Jeneroux, throughout the pandemic, has had the percentage of inbound travellers who have tested positive for COVID, so there has been some public data that everyone has shared.

Our requests are more around the precise policies that we see, and what the precise benefits are to the overall COVID equation. I'll use the example of the omicron mandates that were put in place. We wanted to better understand what exactly these measures were going to prevent or not, with specificity for the airline sector.

It's more about precisely understanding the recommendations that were made by public health officials and how the government was informed in terms of these decisions, so we can take away questions like this at committee and take away discussions about who's with science and who's not. We have to move past that and talk very strictly and purely about—

[Matt Jeneroux, Conservative, Edmonton Riverbend, AB]

Is there no additional science, then, that you have been privy to that isn't public right now? That is the meat of my question.

[Andy Gibbons]

We have a great relationship with the government. There are many discussions about science and metrics. Primarily, it has been what is in the public domain for everyone to see and understand. In that respect, there has been general aggregate information available.

[Matt Jeneroux, Conservative, Edmonton Riverbend, AB]

I'll probably stick with you, Mr. Gibbons. I'm going to ask you one quick question that I think is a bit outside of the mandate of questions we've been focusing on.

Is it correct that airlines are the only entity that have obligations to take care of travellers and ensure they're informed and cared for?

[Andy Gibbons]

That is a good question. I believe some of this came up at committee the other day, because someone asked the minister about standards of care. That's one of the issues that's coming to light here, with these delays.

Just to give you an example, Mr. Jeneroux, there are some evenings in Toronto where 700 of our guests have to be reaccommodated onto other flights. Oftentimes, we will have almost half a dozen flights on which families are prevented from leaving the airplane just to enter the customs hall.

In our industry, we have a very strict regulatory environment, as we should as a federally regulated company. When it comes to something like a tarmac delay, we have obligations that at 30 minutes you have to do this and at 60 minutes you have to do that. You have to make sure water is there; you have to make sure that communications to the guests are clear, that you're communicating why the delay is happening and what they're entitled to and not entitled to.

As part of this, in terms of improving the overall system and traveller experience, we are observing that for every touchpoint for the traveller in Canadian society, airlines are seemingly the only ones with service standard obligations and regulatory requirements that need to be met.

I think it's an open—

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Mr. Gibbons, and thank you very much, Mr. Jeneroux.

Next, we have Mr. Iacono, for five minutes.

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to thank the witnesses for being with us today.

Ms. Acton‑Gervais, I understand that the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, or CATSA, is having trouble rehiring all of its screening officers, because some of them have been hired as baggage handlers or for other types of jobs at the airport.

I also assume that these employees are vaccinated, right?

[Suzanne Acton-Gervais]

There is a mandate for employees, so I would think that's correct.

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Can you tell us if they were recruited for other types of jobs? That's the question.

[Suzanne Acton-Gervais]

I can't confirm that.

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Could you provide this answer later?