I guess what I'm getting at, Mr. Chair, is that there are documents that show that senior officials with Transport Canada were in conversations with the CTA in advance of the very controversial decision on allowing airlines to provide vouchers as opposed to refunding passengers for flights.
As well, the transport minister's chief of staff took part in a call with the chair of the CTA and a Transport Canada deputy minister to discuss vouchers, so this was all prior to a major decision to put out a statement on vouchers, which, early in the pandemic, had a huge bearing on the treatment of the travelling public.
I'm not sure I'm going to get an answer from Mr. Oommen, but I would offer that in another judicial context, that kind of interference would be absolutely inappropriate, such as, for instance, if the government called a judge and said, “Hey, I'm really concerned about the financial status”—in this case, the government is talking about Air Transat, saying that they're getting pressure from creditors who are pushing the airlines for cash—essentially doing the bidding of the airlines and expressing concern for their financial position. They're doing that to a quasi-judicial, arm's-length independent agency. It's absolutely mind-boggling that such a thing was allowed to take place.
I didn't hear in the list of policies and practices at the CTA anything that protects against that kind of inappropriate interference.
I'm not sure how I'm doing for time, Mr. Chair, but I have one more question.