Transport Committee on Sept. 28th, 2022

[Terry Dowdall, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

It's for anybody who has a thought on that.

Does everyone think that it's just going to continue to go? Are people worried because of the economy?

As an example, we're doing more Zoom meetings. You're on Zoom here. In the House, we're in hybrid meetings, so people aren't flying in as often as they used to. Because we've been doing this for so long, is that going to be the norm? Maybe businesses won't be travelling as much as they did before.

As well, on the economy in the future, in looking back at recession times, what do we need to do to address that?

[John McKenna]

Absolutely, sir, this is something of great concern. As I just said in my opening remarks, we don't know what the future holds as far as the industry is concerned. Up to 60% of travelling in the past was for business-related reasons, and yes, people are getting used to working with other means, so obviously that's going to have a huge impact on the air travel industry and on the equipment used and so on, but we just don't know.

Right now, we're doing our best to recover, and we're bracing for the next pandemic, which could happen at any time. We don't know. We certainly don't want to go through what we did in the last two years. There's no way you can plan for a pandemic, but we have to be better prepared for the next time we rush into something like this.

[Terry Dowdall, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

I have one other quick question.

I'm close to Toronto, an hour out when it comes to cross-border flights, and I am going to Florida if all goes well—fingers crossed—this year, hopefully. On the number of people who are crossing the border, I don't know if there's something we need to do. I think it's important, in terms of what was said earlier about essential services, for businesses and everything involved in the airport industry, and we need to look at it in a different light.

Are you losing a lot? How do you compete with the fact that where I am, it's that much cheaper to cross down to Buffalo, and if you look all across Canada at the borders, you must be losing quite a bit of revenue from that.

[John McKenna]

In prepandemic years, we were losing about five million passengers a year with people crossing the border to fly, and that's just a rough estimate. We don't see that going down any time soon. Of course, it was quiet during the pandemic, when people couldn't cross the border, but that's not something that's going to last.

Yes, this is of concern. We have to be competitive domestically and internationally and certainly transborder a lot of our flights are. It's not the case right now.

[Terry Dowdall, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

The dollar might change a little bit of that.

Am I done, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Yes. Thank you very much, Mr. Dowdall.

Thank you very much, Mr. McKenna.

Finally, we have Mr. Chahal.

The floor is yours. You have five minutes.

[George Chahal, Liberal, Calgary Skyview, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'm going to go right to some questions. I'm going to start with the Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal airports, one after another. I would like to hear from the airports on whether communications with the minister and Transport Canada were good. Also, did the minister's office consult with you and stakeholders?

Vancouver is first.

[Trevor Boudreau]

Our conversations and communications with both senior departmental staff and the minister's office are strong. In fact, the minister was out here in July to tour our facility with my CEO.

[George Chahal, Liberal, Calgary Skyview, AB]

That's excellent. Thank you.

I'll go now to Calgary.

[Carmelle Hunka]

Through the pandemic, our communications with Transport Canada and the minister improved and became much more significant and much more accessible over the course of the pandemic to discuss the issues. At times, when we consulted with respect to various decisions, we had conversations and we spent time articulating our positions to the ministry. We would then hear of decisions that were made based upon those discussions.

[George Chahal, Liberal, Calgary Skyview, AB]

That's great. Consultation and collaboration occurred.

I'll go to Montreal.

[Martin Massé]

That was the case for us as well.

The difference during the pandemic was that health sector stakeholders were very much in the picture, even though we were not accustomed to dealing with them very much. As for Transport Canada and the minister's office, communications continued on a steady basis.

[George Chahal, Liberal, Calgary Skyview, AB]

Thank you. That's what I wanted to be clear on: that there was communication and collaboration with stakeholders, the minister and Transport Canada.

Thank you for your answers.

Ms. Hunka, I want to go back to you.

You talked in your opening remarks about the importance of the national trade corridors fund. I know that for the Calgary International Airport, the $153-million Airport Trail project is really important for northeast Calgary to move goods and services—that $8 billion of GDP—as well as passengers and workers coming to the airport.

What other critical capital projects would you like to see at YYC?

[Carmelle Hunka]

YYC is the only one of the four major airports that doesn't have a direct rail connection between the airport and downtown or a plan to build it. That is a piece of critical infrastructure that we know our catchment area and our city demand. We know there are various projects being discussed, but that is critical and important to us.

The other part, with respect to the national trade corridors fund request and our access to that, is some of the critical infrastructure programs that we have under way and the inflationary pressures that those programs are feeling at this point in time.

[George Chahal, Liberal, Calgary Skyview, AB]

I'm sorry, Ms. Hunka. I have about 10 seconds and I want to squeeze this in.

I believe a functional study was done for the airport on the rail connection from the Blue Line Saddletowne station to 88 Avenue. We worked closely on that.

Do you think that would alleviate issues for labour and passengers to quickly and efficiently get to the airport? Are discussions ongoing? Is that study complete? Are we ready to move forward and work with all levels of government to make this happen?

[Carmelle Hunka]

Absolutely. We believe the Blue Line is the quickest, most efficient and most effective way to move workers. It would definitely bring in workers, with respect to the cargo facilities and the other areas of the airport.

We have had strong conversations, and we believe that the Blue Line, if funded, could be ready to go and effective.

[George Chahal, Liberal, Calgary Skyview, AB]

Thank you so much, Mr. Chair.

Do I still have time for another question?

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

You do not, unfortunately, Mr. Chahal.

I want to thank you and all members of the committee for your questions today.

Also I want to thank Mr. Massé, Mr. McKenna, Ms. Hunka and Mr. Boudreau for their testimony today and for contributing their time to this very important study.

Enjoy the rest of your day.

This meeting is now adjourned.