Madam Speaker, on February 19, in question period, I asked the Minister of Transport the following:
Madam Speaker, the minister is correct. He did appear yesterday at committee. Unfortunately, he got his facts wrong again about purchasing tickets to sun destinations. The minister said that it takes multiple tickets for an American carrier to take a Canadian to a sun destination, when in fact it only takes a single ticket. When will the minister get his facts straight, and when will he fix this problem?
I received the following response:
Madam Speaker, I will argue that she needs to get her facts straight. I said “multiple trips”.
—meaning not multiple tickets—
Let me be very clear to all Canadians. We are asking all Canadians to suspend discretionary and vacation travel.
I did remember very clearly what the minister said the day before at committee, and I attempted to make a point of order. Unfortunately, I did not have the text in front of me, but I do have it here it today. This is from the record at committee on February 18, when the Minister of Transport appeared.
My question for the Minister of Transport at committee on February 18 was this:
My colleague mentioned previously that when the pandemic is over, or finally, we hope, the government is successful in its vaccination efforts or perhaps in utilizing the tools of vaccines and rapid testing, which we have been encouraging the government to do for so long, even then, when the airline sector opens again, there will have been an incredible loss of market share over this time. I've mentioned this in the House. We see it, for example, with the implementation of the travel restrictions, whereby American carriers can still fly Canadians to sun destinations.
Will this plan include a strategy for dealing with the loss of market share, which will take years for the Canadian airline sector to recover?
The Minister of Transport responded with the following:
Let me just correct the record. No American airlines can take Canadians to a sun destination. If they do, then those Canadians are buying multiple tickets to get to the sun destination. There are no direct flights between Canada and sun destinations.
Having said that, the short answer to her question is yes. We are committed to working with the airline sector and making sure that they are strong and ready for a recovery post-COVID.
I can confirm, because it is in the record, that the Minister of Transport did say “multiple tickets”. I will back this up with my efforts on February 19 following question period. Before I attempted to make this point of order, I went onto the Expedia website and was able, through an American carrier, to have the option of purchasing with a single ticket a trip from YVR, which of course we know is Vancouver, to Puerto Vallarta, one of my favourite sun destinations, PVR, with only a single 31-minute stop in Seattle.
I would like to set the record straight with this information. I am expressing my sincere disappointment that there is still no plan for the airline sector after all of this time and, of course, my extreme disappointment that the government did not support our opposition day motion, which included support for airline workers and the airline sector.