Transport Committee on Aug. 19th, 2022

[Michael Keenan]

Mr. Chair, is my audio coming through?

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

It is indeed, Mr. Keenan.

[Michael Keenan]

Great.

I would repeat one point that my colleague from the CBSA made, which is that ArriveCAN is a tool for efficiently collecting information that the Government of Canada requires travellers to submit as part of its ongoing COVID protection measures under the interim order under the Quarantine Act administered by the Public Health Agency of Canada.

The second point is that we'd be happy to provide additional documentation. There's a lot of documentation on those orders, the rationale and how ArriveCAN contributes to operationalizing the high volume of people crossing the border.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Thank you.

I would just say, through you, Mr. Chair, that it's very efficient; I've crossed into the United States several times. I'm asked by Homeland Security agents if I'm vaccinated, I say “yes”, and that's the end. It's still an offence to lie, so it seems excessive and redundant at best.

I referenced some documents, some court documents that had been reported on and that quoted one of the officials we have at our meeting today. I'm wondering if he's able to speak to whether it is standard practice for the government to create a policy and then ask for the supporting evidence for that policy after the policy has been created, on the eve of its implementation. Is that standard?

[Michael Keenan]

Mr. Chair, I'd like to start off with a key point on the premise of that question and then turn it over to Mr. McCrorie to further elaborate.

A really important point here is that I think the member is referring to media reports about the information filed by Transport Canada in a court case on the vaccine mandate. What the media failed to report was that Transport Canada tabled and provided extensive scientific evidence on the rationale for the vaccine mandate. That was not in the media report, but it was in the testimony, in the filings of Transport Canada.

We would be happy, if it would serve the committee, to provide a copy of that information, which was actually presented by Transport Canada in court.

The second point of context I'd like to provide is that throughout the two-plus years of COVID, COVID has not stood still. We have been evolving and adjusting the health measures at the border and in the transportation system throughout. In that process, we constantly seek updated information from the Public Health Agency of Canada. There's an ongoing process of pulling information in from the Public Health Agency of Canada as part of our work and using their expertise in health measures to guide the development of our measures.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Thanks for that reply, Mr. Keenan.

In tabling that information with the committee, it would be important for you to note if that evidence was provided to Transport Canada before the policy was made, or if the policy was made before the evidence was provided.

[Michael Keenan]

I can answer that for you now.

Significant health evidence was provided to Transport Canada throughout the entire period of COVID, for months and months before the vaccine mandate, as well as after.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Mr. Keenan.

I have a quick note about the audio. I am hearing from our clerk that you have not selected your microphone. I think that's the only step we have left.

[Michael Keenan]

I apologize. I recognize how important this is.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

It's not a worry at all. We'll give you a couple of seconds to clear that up, and then we'll move on to Mr. Chahal.

[Michael Keenan]

How about now?

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Perfect.

Thank you so much, Mr. Keenan.

[Michael Keenan]

Mr. Chair, thank you for your patience on this. I apologize.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

No worries at all, Mr. Keenan.

Next we have Mr. Chahal.

Mr. Chahal, the floor is yours. You have six minutes.

[George Chahal, Liberal, Calgary Skyview, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all the witnesses for joining us today, and the minister for taking time out of his schedule to do so as well. I hope he is feeling better and wish him a quick recovery.

I've been to a number of airports over the last few months, and some have been busy. Maybe I haven't had the same experiences as others. My experience has been great at all the airports I've been through.

I went through Toronto Pearson just last week. I was telling friends and family, as they thought I was going to be delayed, that I was through the lineups and security in under five minutes. I was really impressed with the great work that officials were doing there at security helping to process travellers through. My experience was great, quick and efficient.

I know other airports across the country have had challenges. My travels mostly go through the Calgary airport and I've never had to wait very long. As there are some particular problems at some of our major airports, how have the Calgary and Edmonton airports been doing when it comes to traffic and passenger movement?

Mr. Keenan, maybe you would like to answer this.

[Michael Keenan]

Sure. I'd say two things.

In terms of Calgary, first, interestingly enough, Calgary has had a really strong rebound in traffic. The Canadian air travel system has gone from a very low level, as the minister indicated, to 81% of what you would normally see in a busy summer. As of last week, Calgary was up to 86%, so it was a little heavy.

In terms of security screening at the Calgary airport, as the minister indicated, there were challenges in security screening and other areas adjusting to the rapid growth. Calgary shared in that experience but actually its numbers were pretty good.

I'd turn it over to our CATSA colleagues, and the CBSA may wish to comment on this, but both on CBSA processing on arrivals and on security screening, Calgary is doing a little better than the average of the top four airports. There is variation airport by airport, but Calgary tends to be on the positive side.

[George Chahal, Liberal, Calgary Skyview, AB]

Thank you for that.

Maybe I'll jump to the CBSA and Mr. Vinette for comment. We've had this conversation, but please add to what Mr. Keenan has just stated. A lot of the challenges I've been hearing are about staffing shortages at the U.S. customs and border security, on that end. Can you tell me and the committee what you've observed and how that's affecting operations at our airports?

[Denis Vinette]

Regrettably, I can't speak to the U.S. pre-clearance operations. I know Public Safety is heavily engaged with their Department of Homeland Security counterparts, as well as Transport Canada, and the CBSA to a much lesser extent, just to speak to the interest and what we have seen in terms of the capacity being sought in restoring air transportation.

This is a question for either our Transport Canada colleagues or our Public Safety colleagues, who aren't here today. My apologies.

[Michael Keenan]

If I could add briefly to what Denis just said, it's exactly that. We've seen that all airports and all agencies around the world have been struggling to adjust to this big increase in traffic. The sharp increase in Canada has CBSA struggling to adjust. They've had some amazing progress at Pearson, and we now have the customs hall at Pearson flowing much better than it was a month or two ago.

CBP and the pre-clearance in Montreal and Toronto.... There are some issues with backups, particularly in early morning flights going out of those two airports into the U.S., in terms of the CBP's processing capacity. You see that it has even affected the CATSA numbers in Toronto and Montreal. The longest waits you see at CATSA are actually for those pre-clearance lines, because CATSA has to slow down to avoid putting too many people into the waiting room of the U.S. CBP.

We are working with our American counterparts and colleagues. They're engaged with us, and we're working together to seek solutions so we can get the throughput through CBP and the pre-clearance in Toronto and Montreal higher, consistent with the demand to travel between Canada and the U.S.

[George Chahal, Liberal, Calgary Skyview, AB]

Thank you for clarifying that. I think that's helpful for everybody listening today, as many of those challenges are in working with our neighbours in clearance and pre-clearance when going to the U.S.

For the next question, I want to go to Ms. Lutfallah from PHAC.

My question is about masking. Does the rationale for masking still apply? Could you provide some comments on that? We've seen over the last number of years a conversation on masking. We saw, early on in Alberta, a lack of action by many prominent Conservatives on the issue of implementing masking, and cities taking it into their own hands to do so to protect their citizens.

I want to know, from a public health perspective, the rationale for requiring masking. Does it still apply?

[Jennifer Lutfallah, Vice-President, Health Security and Regional Operations Branch, Public Health Agency of Canada]

Are you referring to masking within the context of flights?

[George Chahal, Liberal, Calgary Skyview, AB]

Yes.

[Jennifer Lutfallah]

Okay. I'm going to pass this on to my Transport Canada colleagues, but I would point out that we have assessed masking, and obviously it is a public health measure that would protect you as an individual, as well as people around you, by creating a barrier for any exchange of fluids in conversations and so forth.

With respect to the regulatory regime for airlines, that would be for Transport Canada.

[George Chahal, Liberal, Calgary Skyview, AB]

Do you still believe that it protects folks from transmission—

[Jennifer Lutfallah]

Yes.