Evidence of meeting #27 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 video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Omar Alghabra Liberal Mississauga Centre, ON
We are seeing airports and airlines work together to address these scheduling issues. We saw airlines make the difficult but right decision to cut back on some of their scheduled flights to ensure that they're able to service the demand. Several important steps have been taken to manage the peak, but again, we need to continue to observe and monitor the situation and respond to ensure that we address all of these issues.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Schiefke
Thank you, Minister and Mr. Iacono.
Mr. Barsalou‑Duval, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.
Bloc
Xavier Barsalou-Duval Bloc Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Minister, the Bloc Québécois has proposed that the airline passenger bill of rights also apply to the federal government and its agencies. That would make it possible to compensate travellers when their flights are cancelled or delayed as a result of federal government mismanagement or incompetence.
That would put an end to the kind of culture of impunity we're seeing since the government suffers no consequences when it fails to solve the problem and let's things go awry.
Do you intend to apply the travellers bill of rights to the federal government?
Liberal
Omar Alghabra Liberal Mississauga Centre, ON
Mr. Chair, these regulations are done to protect passengers who enter into a commercial agreement with airlines to receive a service that they paid for. Citizens are always able to hold governments accountable through their members of Parliament, through elections, through various means, but passengers for the longest time had no recourse to ensure that airlines they paid money to were able to provide them the service they paid for. That's the intention of these regulations.
Is there an opportunity for us to continue to improve it? Sure. I'm happy to work with my colleagues on figuring out how we can improve these regulations, but they're intended to protect passengers who enter into a commercial contract with airlines so they receive the service they paid for.
Bloc
Xavier Barsalou-Duval Bloc Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC
Thank you, Minister.
On the one hand, I find it curious that consumers have no recourse when the government causes their flights to be delayed or cancelled. On the other hand, we set rules and standards for businesses that the government doesn't impose on itself. There's a lack of consistency here.
Furthermore, with regard to the Canadian Transportation Agency, I'm thinking of the documents that were leaked and that prove that Air Canada knowingly asked its staff to lie to travellers about the reasons why flights were cancelled to avoid being assessed penalties.
We have to assume there are no consequences for that. Even if consumers file a complaint with the agency, there's a backlog of 18,000 complaints. So that complaint won't be processed for a month of Sundays. Consumer associations now suggest that people circumvent the agency and go straight to the courts.
Don't you think that's a disgrace, Minister?
What's it like for you to see how the Canadian Transportation Agency, which is supposed to be the watchdog for travellers' rights, is utterly ineffective.
Liberal
Omar Alghabra Liberal Mississauga Centre, ON
The CTA is an independent, quasi-judicial body that is adjudicating these complaints independently. I can assure you that I have confidence in their ability to do their work and that our government will continue to assist them to ensure they have the resources they need to protect passengers.
I understand that recently the CTA issued a ruling that the labour shortage could not be claimed as a safety matter. The CTA looks at individual complaints and adjudicates them based on the circumstances and evidence before it.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Schiefke
Thank you very much, Minister and Mr. Barsalou‑Duval.
Next we have Mr. Bachrach.
Mr. Bachrach, the floor is yours. You have two and a half minutes.
NDP
Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Minister, I'll pick up where my colleague left off.
On December 29, Air Canada issued an internal memo stating, “Effective immediately, flight cancellations due to crew are considered as Within Carrier Control—For Safety”, and, further, that passengers “will no longer be eligible for APPR claims/monetary compensation”.
Does this reflect your understanding of the spirit of the air passenger protection regulations?
Liberal
Omar Alghabra Liberal Mississauga Centre, ON
Mr. Bachrach, the CTA is responsible for adjudicating the complaints, and they will look at each complaint independently and objectively. As you can imagine, I want to avoid prejudging individual complaints. Having said that—
Liberal
Omar Alghabra Liberal Mississauga Centre, ON
—I do not feel that labour issues, in spirit, can be used as a justification for safety standards.
NDP
Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Thank you for that, Minister.
You've repeatedly said that the CTA is an independent body, yet cabinet and you as Minister of Transport are ultimately accountable. You created the legislation, you created the regulations and you're responsible for the CTA.
Section 43 of the Canada Transportation Act empowers you and cabinet to issue policy directives to the CTA. Will you use this, in light of what has happened to air passengers over the past year and in light of the fact that airlines continue to treat passengers in atrocious ways when it comes to delays and cancellations? Will you use this policy directive to strengthen the APPR?
Liberal
Omar Alghabra Liberal Mississauga Centre, ON
Mr. Bachrach, to use your point and give you an example of how our government and the Minister of Transport utilize that ability, we actually issued a directive to the CTA, given the lessons we learned from COVID, about areas outside the control of airlines. We issued a directive so they could reform the regulation, and it's now strengthened. In fact, as of September 8, a new set of rules will take effect to improve the regulations.
Moving forward, I think there's an opportunity for us to work together on looking at what else we can do to continue to improve and build on the regulations we have. I'm happy to work with you and other colleagues on figuring out what else can be done.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Schiefke
Thank you very much, Mr. Bachrach, and thank you, Minister.
Next we have Mr. Baldinelli.
Mr. Baldinelli, you have five minutes. The floor is yours.
Conservative
Tony Baldinelli Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Minister.
Minister, a Canadian traveller recently left this public comment on Tripadvisor: “Just got back from a trip to Nevada flying out of Buffalo, and I am from Ontario, the airport is a dream, no line ups, quick through TSA check points, the airport is super clean.... Quick drive over to the airport. No Covid testing required! Crossing across the U.S. border is easy, they only ask if you are vaccinated and do not ask to see your test (I have crossed three times in the past two months, same thing every time) coming back across the border at the Rainbow [bridge] there were about 10 cars in front of us and it took for ever to get to the booth. So anyone thinking of ditching Pearson Airport and travelling down to Buffalo, do it—its worth it”.
Minister, Niagara Falls is the number one tourism, leisure destination in all of Canada, yet every taxpayer dollar that Destination Canada spends in international markets, including our prime market, the United States, for our border communities is being wasted by headlines that continually hit the press talking about Pearson Airport being the worst airport in the world.
My colleague just mentioned this. Sixty countries around the world have abandoned all air travel pandemic restrictions, including most of our European allies. Why does the government continue to cling to these restrictions, which only do a disservice and disincentivize travel to this country?
Liberal
Omar Alghabra Liberal Mississauga Centre, ON
Mr. Chair, it helps no one to undermine confidence in our aviation sector and in our institutions. I acknowledge the fact that, in Canadian airports and airlines, we've witnessed and continue to witness some congestion similar to what we're seeing around the world, including in the United States.
I also acknowledge that currently the only public health measure we have at our borders is requiring proof of vaccination—by the way, just like the U.S. and many countries around the world.
Work is being done on a daily basis to address these congestion issues, and the evidence proves that things are getting better. More work is needed, but things are getting better.
I want to ask my honourable colleague why, if he really cares about the fluidity of our borders, did he and his colleagues support these blockaders who blocked our borders for weeks, preventing Canadians and others from—
Conservative
Tony Baldinelli Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
Minister, the question period is to me now. If you had done your job, Minister, and spoken to stakeholders, including the federal bridge that you regulate in Fort Erie, the Fort Erie Peace Bridge authority.... You appoint members of that commission. They can tell you about the border delays and about traffic being down 50%, Minister. Wait times are up almost two hours, yet you've done nothing. Minister, you have a hard time responding to correspondence from them, and it's your commission that you regulate. Why are you continuing to put in disincentives to travel to this country?
There are 40,000 people in my community who work in the tourism sector, and they're being impacted. We've lost two tourism years because of COVID. This year, if we lose it, it's self-inflicted, and there's nobody to blame but the Liberal government. When are you going to take action?
Who told you, Minister, that ArriveCAN is not having any impact on wait times?
Liberal
Omar Alghabra Liberal Mississauga Centre, ON
Mr. Chair, setting aside the bluster there, we continue to do everything we can to protect the health and safety of Canadians and facilitating smooth border crossings for all travellers. We have had all hands on deck, whether it is at airports or land borders. My colleagues and I have been working with border communities to ensure that they have the tools they need to facilitate safe and efficient border crossings.
Mr. Chair, the public health measures we have—
Conservative
Tony Baldinelli Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
Whom have you spoken to, Minister? Have you spoken to the stakeholders? Have you spoken to the bridge commissions? Have you spoken to the tourism stakeholders?
My understanding is that the Liberal caucus was meeting recently in Niagara Falls, the Ontario caucus. Did they meet with any stakeholders to hear from them directly about the impact it's having on my community, yes or no?
Liberal
Omar Alghabra Liberal Mississauga Centre, ON
Mr. Chair, I know my colleague Vance Badawey is here and a member of the committee. He's been a proud and vocal advocate on behalf of the Niagara region, a champion for the Great Lakes, a champion for the communities who has been working—
Conservative
