Transport committee  I don't think Canadian Airlines' failure caused any consumer losses, because it was rolled into Air Canada.

Transport committee  Yes, I can provide that information to you.

Transport committee  There is a distinct difference between the charter carriers and the wholesalers who put leisure package tours together and sell them to the consumer. There is a responsibility on the wholesaler when they put a package tour together, which is a leisure product; if any component of

Transport committee  Certainly with the travel agencies, which at the provincial level--

Transport committee  --are required to have it. What other industries—I might ask you a question to respond to your question—allow consumer moneys to be used to pay for operating expenses? When you buy a pair of shoes, you get your pair of shoes. You don't give the supplier the money three months a

Transport committee  But you won't see those retail industries using those consumer moneys to gamble with; that is what's happening.

Transport committee  No.

Transport committee  I can speak to the fund in Ontario. I want to give you some background, because there has been legislation in Ontario since 1974, a provincial travel act that provides for a compensation fund to reimburse consumers in the event of the insolvency of a travel agency or the wholesal

Transport committee  An 80% reduction.

Transport committee  It is financed by the industry. It's collected and remitted to the Travel Industry Council by the industry on gross sales. So that's the formula.

Transport committee  Mr. Blaney, I want to clarify the issue of compensation funds. The compensation funds—and I can talk to Ontario—are in place to protect consumers against the insolvency or bankruptcy of a travel agency. That's the primary reason why the compensation fund is there. Travel agenc

Transport committee  We wholeheartedly advocate for full price disclosure in advertising at the federal level, because we're subject to it in Ontario, and there's no level playing field. It puts the travel agencies at a disadvantage when they have to advertise the same fares at the full price. When t

Transport committee  There is an impact. We can't measure what the impact is, but it's obviously driving consumers directly to airlines, which is what they want, I guess. But it's certainly not a level playing field. I mean, the travel agencies are there to serve the public as well.

Transport committee  We can't measure it because we don't know what it's going to be. I can tell you that the sales in Ontario have not gone down over the last several years. They've always climbed. But we don't know whether they could have climbed more, because a lot more people are travelling.

Transport committee  Quebec has all-in pricing, but Quebec and Ontario are the only two provinces that are subject to this. There are only three regulated provinces as far as travel is concerned--B.C., Quebec, and Ontario.