Hon. Dennis Glen Patterson: My question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate.

Senator Gold, as you know, northern and remote communities are either heavily or — as in Nunavut — solely reliant on air transportation, but some decisions from your government have had a negative impact on the price and availability of flights. In a June 8, 2023, letter to Minister Alghabra from John McKenna, President and CEO of the Air Transport Association of Canada, he writes that the new flight crew fatigue management regulations and the Air Passenger Protection Regulations have resulted in the need for 30% more pilots in order to maintain current service levels. Mr. McKenna goes on to say that the suggested fatigue risk management system alternatives have been amply proven to be impractical and impossible to implement, except for perhaps Canada’s largest carrier.

Would your government please be willing to suspend these new regulations for 18 months, as Mr. McKenna suggested, in order to enable industry to work with Transport Canada to collaboratively develop a more reasonable regulatory regime and also to give time to attract and train the additional pilots required to maintain the new service standards?