Transport committee  Thank you for your question. Unfortunately, the situation we've faced in the last few years is quite extraordinary, after all. As you know, the pandemic happened. Once the worst of it was over, passenger numbers suddenly jumped last summer by 300%, according to the figures I ha

Transport committee  I'm going to jump in, if I may, to correct something that the minister may have said in the last session. I want to get it on the record. He mentioned that VIA doesn't own any of the tracks it uses. In fact, it owns less than 5%. I wanted to add that little correction. He rightly

Transport committee  That's correct. I'm talking about the department.

Transport committee  That's correct. I would have to get back to you specifically. I personally did not speak with a senior official at Sunwing, but our deputy minister, Mike Keenan, had an interaction. I believe that's probably the reference to the 28th that you are referring to.

Transport committee  We were interacting with airport authorities. We were interacting with air carriers. We were interacting with VIA Rail. There was interaction happening to understand exactly the extent of the issues, and we were seeking assurances from all the various players on what they were do

Transport committee  —so it's not as though this was a calm period that we were going through. Of course, we were also dealing with all these issues at a time when many of our officials were going through Christmas holidays as well, so....

Transport committee  Absolutely. I would agree that throughout the course of the crisis, we should be keeping Canadians apprised. The royal “we” there would be everyone involved throughout the air sector environment. What I will point out—as the minister highlighted—is that Transport Canada official

Transport committee  I'm not going to speak for the minister. I think he did a good job of doing that for himself in the hour that preceded this. What I can say is that Transport Canada officials were in touch with Sunwing on a daily basis. I know that for a fact, because deputy minister Mike Keenan

Transport committee  No, in the sense that we were interacting with Sunwing officials. When I say “we”, the Department of Transport and our officials were in touch with Sunwing to get periodic updates in terms of what was happening with regard to their flights and what was happening in terms of their