Transport Committee on Jan. 12th, 2023

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Rainville, in your statement, you mentioned the preparation needed to avoid crises such as the one we experienced in December. I would like to know who is around the table when this planning and these discussions take place.

[Philippe Rainville]

We have a lot of direct discussions, one on one, with the airlines and with the Government of Canada. During the forum on November 24, we were able to meet. Those discussions are still ongoing.

With the airlines, we have very structured committees. We have made progress. We are constantly consulting with the airlines. As I said, we're having these conversations a little more often than we used to with the Government of Canada.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you.

According to what we heard from the carrier representatives this morning, one of the shortcomings of the Air Passenger Protection Regulations is that it only targets air carriers, whereas air travel is a large process involving many players, an ecosystem as you mentioned. I would like to hear you on that.

Do you see this as a flaw, or is it something normal, given that the contract is between the passenger and the carrier?

[Philippe Rainville]

I would say to you that it may be like that in the contract, but that is not how things work in reality. The reality is that we are all in this together. We have a common goal, which is to serve the passengers and avoid all this. Maybe we can demand a change in the regulations, but frankly, we are all in this to serve the passengers.

I'm only going to speak for Montreal. In our committees, we coordinate to provide a common service. I think we are all responsible for providing that service.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

I have one last very quick question that may seem comical, but isn't that comical.

We'll see what happens for this winter, but since last summer, is there still any lost luggage that hasn't found its owner?

[Philippe Rainville]

To my knowledge, no. In fact, I found mine.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you, Ms. Vignola.

Next we have Mr. Bachrach.

Mr. Bachrach, the floor is yours. You have two and a half minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It's funny—I just got a text from a certain airline telling me that my flight home has been cancelled. I'll try not to read too much into that. I hope it wasn't connected with my earlier comments.

I'd like to pick up where I left off with Ms. Vrooman from YVR and the evening on which so many passengers were stuck and unable to deplane. Were there instances that evening of passengers having to be deplaned for medical reasons and, if so, how was this done?

[Tamara Vrooman]

I am unaware of any emergency evacuations from aircraft that were held on the tarmac. Certainly we were briefed about some passengers who had some distress over anxiety, etc., which is understandable, coming from the aircraft and we moved, as I said, as quickly as possible with the constraints that we had to get those aircraft to the gates.

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

Along similar lines, were there requests from the airlines to get food and beverages to those who were stuck on board?

[Deborah Flint]

We received no such requests.

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

If those requests had been received, is there a process in that situation for getting food to the passengers who were stuck on board?

[Tamara Vrooman]

Absolutely. Depending on the conditions, we have our emergency operations and, in fact, our fire and emergency crews able to taxi out and transport to aircraft as needed.

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

If there were people on board these aircraft who were in medical distress, what would the protocol be for getting them off the airplane?

[Tamara Vrooman]

That would depend very, very much on the specific situation, so it's difficult to comment in a general way, but, of course, there would be assessments made, and there would be trained personnel who could operate on the airfield in ways that the public and passengers cannot in order to get to that aircraft and safely remove and evacuate those types of passengers.

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

My final question, Ms. Vrooman, comes back to this issue of the extraordinary snow accumulation and snowfall. Where I live, 30 centimetres of snow is just known as a Thursday, but obviously this was outside of the parameters in which YVR was able to operate.

Will YVR be upgrading its resilience plans to ensure that it can continue operations and deplane people under circumstances such as that kind of accumulation of snow?

[Tamara Vrooman]

It wasn't the accumulation of snow, because certainly even here in Vancouver we've had more than 30 centimetres of snow accumulate over time. It was the rate of accumulation that caused the time outs and the safety standards that I referred to. Of course, I have already actioned an after-action review, as we do after every incident, large or small, to take these learnings to improve our service.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Mr. Bachrach.

Next we have Dr. Lewis.

Dr. Lewis, the floor is yours. You have five minutes.

[Leslyn Lewis, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question is going to be for Ms. Flint.

I'm grateful for your testimony here today and for your forthrightness in identifying some of the causes of the delay. This was a very important travel season for many Canadians, especially those who were forbidden to travel during COVID.

You testified about the unique situation that related to the luggage conveyor belt. How long did that situation last? When did it break and when was it fixed?

[Deborah Flint]

It was a period of 48 hours in which there were intermittent failures in the mechanical aspects of the system. Again, it's a very complicated system. It wasn't one whole system that broke down but component pieces that had their challenges.

This is a system that is a bit too sensitive, if you will, to the labour and to how the labour uses the system. We have a concept, known as bag hygiene, that requires airline staff to load the bags properly into the system. That did contribute to some of the challenges in getting the system back up and running once we got the motors and other parts that had frozen corrected. Over the course of two days, those 48 hours, we were able to restore the system.

One of our—

[Leslyn Lewis, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

We were bombarded with pictures of luggage sitting all around the airport. Was this associated with the malfunction?

[Deborah Flint]

It was both. Absolutely, some component parts were.... As a result of the malfunction, 10% of the bags were affected and were not able to be inducted into the system that the airlines had ticketed. Those were accumulated, particularly as airlines didn't cancel flights and people were coming to the airport and putting bags into the system. Those flights were ultimately cancelled.

It creates this—

[Leslyn Lewis, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

With this grave publication of these pictures all over the Internet, did you receive a call from the minister?

[Deborah Flint]

I did speak to the deputy minister on the 29th. Prior to the holidays, I had a series of written briefings that I provided to the government about the situational awareness of the airport and its partners going into the holidays and the importance of this time period.

Again, there was the storm—