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House Hansard - 197

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 15, 2023 11:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 197 - May/15/23
Ms. Annie Koutrakis (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport, Lib.)
  • May/15/23 6:58:58 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-47 
Madam Speaker, protecting the rights of air passengers when air travel does not go as planned is a priority of our government. Creating the air passenger protection regulations provided an important framework for travellers' rights; however, lessons learned throughout the pandemic, which began shortly after the regulations were implemented, have provided the Government of Canada with valuable information, including areas that need strengthening. Legislative amendments to the Canada Transportation Act have been introduced to clarify and strengthen Canada's passenger rights regime while increasing air carriers' accountability and streamlining the process for administering air travel complaints by the Canadian Transportation Agency. With these changes, air carriers would be required to pay compensation to travellers unless they can demonstrate that a disruption was caused by specific allowable circumstances. These allowable circumstances would be predetermined and regulations would be established by the agency in consultation with the Minister of Transport. Our government recognizes that changes are needed to ensure that passenger complaints are dealt with as quickly as possible. Legislative changes are being proposed to streamline the process by which dispute resolution services are provided to Canadians and to help reduce the agency's backlog of complaints. The current process involves three steps, including time-consuming and resource-intensive adjudication. The new process is simplified with mediation and a decision, if no settlement is reached. This would ensure Canadians obtain decisions more rapidly while having their complaints thoroughly addressed. It is important to note that the mediation process for air passenger complaints has always been confidential, since we introduced these protections in 2019, becoming the first Canadian government to enshrine the rights of air travellers in legislation. The amendments being proposed in Bill C-47 do not impose any new restrictions. While a confidentiality obligation is typical in mediation processes to allow a frank and open discussion between a complainant and an air carrier, the new process has been designed to ensure that more passengers have access to the information they may need to claim compensation. Under the new process, the agency would be required to make public a summary of each case, including the flight number and the date, as well as the reason for the flight disruption and whether compensation was awarded, which would provide insightful information to other passengers on that same flight. In addition, because compensation amounts are publicly available in the air carriers' terms and conditions of carriage, there is nothing to prevent the agency from publishing this information. I expect the agency to do just that. Our government is confident that the proposed changes will improve transparency while allowing for more timely resolution of air travel complaints.
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Context: House Hansard - 197 - May/15/23
Ms. Annie Koutrakis
  • May/15/23 7:03:43 p.m.
  • Watch
  • Re: Bill C-47 
Madam Speaker, the Government of Canada is committed to ensuring that travellers' rights are respected by airlines when air travel does not go according to plan. The proposed amendments to the Canada Transportation Act will increase airlines' burden of proof by requiring them to compensate travellers unless they can prove that a disruption was caused by a circumstance set out in the list of exceptions. The proposed measures would also streamline the processes for administering air travel complaints at the Canadian Transportation Agency and requires the agency to make public a summary of each decision made by complaint resolution officers. This would inform passengers on that same flight whether compensation has been awarded.
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