Health committee  With regard to the voucher policies in the United States and Europe, both the United States Department of Transportation and the European Commission had indicated that airlines would be absolutely required to provide refunds. I will say that our understanding, to date at least, i

Health committee  I will note that our sense of the economic situation of the airlines is that it could be significantly problematic for them to provide refunds at this time. It's important to note, I think, that they have not really been obtaining any revenues for some period of time now. Obvio

Health committee  I would be clear from the outset that I absolutely understand and I in no way mean to diminish the materiality of this for individual Canadians who have booked travel that they cannot use right now or be refunded for. I would say in terms of airlines and their economic impact t

Health committee  I can't speak to being able to legally require private companies to provide their books. I would say—

Health committee  Chair, one thing to note to date is to know that for the assistance the member speaks of—for example, the large employer emergency facility financing—there is an application process for that. That process obviously is conducted on a commercial confidential basis. There is at pres

Health committee  I'll take that question, Chair. To be clear, Transport Canada itself has not provided any formal financial assistance to Canadian air carriers. The assistance that has come has been within the ambit of larger sector-wide, economy-wide assistance that's been developed, including

Transport committee  Thank you, Chair, I will begin. Honourable members, thank you for the invitation to speak to you about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the air transport sector in Canada. My name is Lawrence Hanson, and I'm the ADM of policy at Transport. Owing to the fact that Canada

Transport committee  Thank you very much, Chair. With regard to the FES announcement yesterday, I'm not really in a position to give any additional details beyond what the Minister of Finance laid out yesterday. I would note that the conditional points really related more to a potential agreement a

Transport committee  Thank you, Chair. Certainly, we have looked at what other countries have done. The comparisons are different, of course, because sometimes it's in support for individuals versus support for carriers. Some countries have taken equity positions in carriers. We have done those comp

Transport committee  Chair, we would be happy to provide information on what we have learned about other countries' supports. To be candid, we have compiled information that is quite largely publicly available. Obviously, we can't speculate on what future support might look like here in Canada.

Transport committee  Mr. Chair, I'd be happy to take this question. I would direct the member's attention to the statement by Minister Garneau on November 8, which was quite explicit on this point. Although the government is prepared to consider assistance for air carriers, given the significant pr

Transport committee  The government has always recognized the difficult situation, on the one hand, of individuals whose flights were cancelled as a result of the pandemic, and on the other hand, a situation where air carriers themselves have very constrained liquidity and cash flow because their rev

Transport committee  Yes, I think when we get to the point of the payment of refunds, there would certainly need to be some sort of approach for detailing the manner and timing in which they would be provided.

Transport committee  I don't have a timeline. I think I will that say that a lot of people will be contacted individually. A lot of people, as you are probably aware, purchase their tickets through third-party vendors online, companies like Expedia and Travelocity, etc., but we would obviously be pus

Transport committee  That is a great question. It points out some of the challenges associated with this and the need to get it right, because, as you say, there is a potential spinoff consequence for travel agents who suddenly see a collapse in commissions as a result of a massive wave of air refund