Transport committee  We did for a number of years, pre-COVID, operate seasonal service three times a week from Whitehorse, Yellowknife and Ottawa. We observed that a significant number of our passengers were actually travelling beyond Ottawa, so the Toronto service was simply replacing two Ottawa sto

Transport committee  I've never been a fan of subsidies, but the Quebec program is interesting. It is a way to keep regional costs affordable. Quite frankly, if we address some of the other issues such as the interline issue that was brought up by the Pascan gentleman, I think we would have a much ea

Transport committee  The flight and duty regulations are probably the most troublesome for us. We've spent a lot of time and effort trying to address them. I think the consultation on the regulations themselves was inadequate. They were advertised as a science-based approach. They were anything but.

Transport committee  I think what our region learned, what northern regions learned, is that air transportation is not a luxury but rather a necessity. The first thing we did when COVID hit was cut back our schedules. Within a week, we heard from the government, “My gosh, we need more service. We ha

Transport committee  Good afternoon, and thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak with you today. I'm Joe Sparling, president of Air North, Yukon's airline. We are a regional airline based in Whitehorse, Yukon. We currently provide scheduled air service between Whitehorse and Dawson City, O

Transport committee  You spoke of international carriers. They've been hardest hit. As a country we need to do all that we can to make sure that our carriers that fly internationally are protected and are able to compete with foreign air carriers who are often funded by their governments. That means

Transport committee  Our cargo volumes are the one thing that has been stable as a result of the pandemic. Passenger volumes were down 95% in April. We've recovered to being down 60% or so. Cargo volumes have remained relatively stable throughout the pandemic. We're very thankful for that.

Transport committee  Well, to the extent that rapid testing would eliminate the need for mandatory self-isolation, then it's had a major impact. As you may or may not know, anybody now coming into Yukon from outside the territory must self-isolate for two weeks. We had a travel bubble with B.C., star

Transport committee  Through the end of September, we're at just over $7 million between the Canada emergency wage subsidy and the northern essential air services relief program. The majority of it is the Canada emergency wage subsidy funding. The Yukon government, in conjunction with the federal gov

Transport committee  Thank you. Hopefully, I covered everything in the notes. I think one of the things that I tried to point out is that I learned a lot when I was researching just how many—or how few—communities in the whole country actually have scheduled air service. The fact is that the majority

Transport committee  I think things have changed pretty significantly since the time of the merger. It's not really for me to comment on how Canadian North and First Air feel about it. I don't know what the conditions were, really, but I would expect that a lot of them would not be very appropriate i

Transport committee  They reached out to us for feedback. We provided them with feedback. Whether it was before or after November 26, I can't remember.

Transport committee  I'm sorry. Are you talking about the airport or the airline?

Transport committee  Employment.... With 1,500 local Yukon shareholders, that's between 1 in 15 and 1 in 20 Yukoners who has an equity stake in the airline. Our shareholders are our customers. When we hold our annual general meeting in our hangar, we get better than 10% of our shareholders showing up

Transport committee  Well, in terms of airline economics, you've likely all heard people describing airlines as often running in a hub and spoke system. In a typical hub and spoke system, the cash tends to flow from the spoke to the hub. In the case of Yukon, by making Yukon our hub, when Yukoners