Transport committee  You don't have to look far. The U.S. is one. Canada went a different route than the U.S., and that happened decades ago. The Americans invest in their airport infrastructure, whether it's public or private, as soon as the airport offers commercial flights. The Federal Aviation Ad

Transport committee  The answer is definitely yes. That's self-evident. Transportation is a product like any other product, so price matters. Is there some price elasticity? Absolutely. At Mont-Tremblant, we tested that price sensitivity with Ontario-based carrier Porter Airlines. A return trip bet

Transport committee  The first thing is to put in a floor price. You put in a floor price across destinations and say you cannot go below that price, Mr. Airline X, because we know that below that price, you're doing it to kill the other guy. They did it in the gas industry. Floor prices exist in m

Transport committee  The answer is yes. The thing I would compare it to is mobile data, Internet service. It's like people having access to high-speed Internet in their region. Is it a luxury for someone to have access to high-speed Internet in their region? No, it's an essential tool for people to c

Transport committee  It's still at the proposal stage. Certain market conditions in the air network are needed before the co-operative can be put in place. That hasn't happened yet. We are still in talks with both the provincial government and the federal government to set up the new air service.

Transport committee  I have to tell you that I'm not aware of any airline company that runs on a co‑operative model. The idea behind the Coopérative de transport régional du Québec is rooted in all the regions of Quebec where stakeholders in a given sector came together to rectify the situation. Airl

Transport committee  I think the thing that is most essential is a fair marketplace. It's no secret that some players in Canada engage in aggressive competition, so that needs to be addressed to ensure healthy competition. We've seen that in other industries, for example, oil and gas, where large mon

Transport committee  I heard one of the MPs from British Columbia say he has this discrepancy in the pricing of airfares between two destinations with the same aircraft over the same distance. Guess what? This is what we have across Quebec. It's a question of competition. The minute you introduce com

Transport committee  When you see a market that doesn't behave correctly, you have to go in and make it work in the right way, or get something that operates right.

Transport committee  Precisely, and it applies to every airport that was designated an airport of entry, or AOE, before 2006. In fact, I think we were the catalyst for the terrible practice. All airports added to the AOE list after that date were told that they had to pay the fees or they wouldn't re

Transport committee  No. I had an informal discussion with the director general at CBSA, and he admitted that the federal government had not adjusted the agency's funding. Even though the federal government gave us the AOE designation, it did not top up the funding the agency needed to provide the s

Transport committee  Mr. Godin, I'm going to tell you something that is already public knowledge. We did engage in civil disobedience. At Mont-Tremblant, we managed to nab direct flights from New York through Continental Airlines. Owing to the clearance service fees, the flights weren't economically

Transport committee  That's right. For 50 seats, that's a welcome tax of $40 for 30 people. Thank you very much. We refused to pay, so CBSA, with the help of the Canada Revenue Agency, seized our bank accounts. We said we were going to close the airport, and that led to an ad hoc settlement agreemen

Transport committee  That was in 2008 or 2009.

Transport committee  It doesn't really affect us, because the subsidy applies to flights within the province. All of our flights come from outside Quebec, places like Toronto and New York. Our private customers come from Europe and the U.S.