Hon. Leo Housakos: Thank you, Senator Patterson, for the question and for your ongoing interest, of course, and concern for the northern part of our country and the rural part of our country.

We have not yet begun the study on passenger rights legislation which, of course, is in the omnibus bill before the chamber. We have scheduled a couple of meetings. We have already invited officials from the department, we have invited the minister, as well as a former executive from the airline industry and an advocate for passenger rights.

You are right. Our committee did look into this issue a few months ago. As we all know, one of the many things broken in this country is our air industry and our aviation industry. It is a complete mess. We also know the government took a shot at passenger rights legislation. It has failed and that’s why we brought the minister before our committee.

We also made it clear to the minister that we didn’t want to be found in a situation where the Senate receives a bill right before the summer and are forced to do a perfunctory study on this important issue facing Canadians. Of course, we find ourselves exactly in that dilemma. We received it in an omnibus bill and have limited time to study it. We also have in the queue Bill C-18, for which there’s a magical deadline that the government has imposed on our committee, which also has limited our capacity to give the attention that passenger rights deserve and particularly the effect it has on northern regions of the country.

Senator D. Patterson: Thank you for that helpful answer, Senator Housakos.

I know I don’t need to overemphasize to you the complete reliance on air travel by communities in my region, where there are no roads or rails or other transportation options for our 25 communities.

I would like to ask you if you would consider hearing from northern voices on this important issue. I’m pleased to hear you have the Minister of Transport invited. He’s the one who made these shocking changes without much or any consultation. I am wondering if you would also consider hearing from Nunavut communities or even First Air and Canadian North when you do this study.

Hon. Leo Housakos: Thank you for the question, Senator Patterson. It is a very timely and legitimate one.

I do have concerns, and all Canadians should have concerns because at the end of the day, we saw the CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada come out and acknowledge — and it’s interesting that right in the middle of the heated debate on Bill C-11, she acknowledged, for all intents and purposes, what many of us have been saying for a long time — that traditional broadcasting is declining quickly. The announcement she made is that there is a plan over 10 years for CBC to transform into a digital platform rather than a cable broadcaster.

However, if you look at the licensing obligations of CBC/Radio-Canada, they are a national cable broadcaster supposedly responsible for providing national regional news and local news serving rural and remote regions of the country. Clearly, they’ve been subsidized to the tune of billions of dollars over a number of decades to provide that service. As they cut their obligatory licensing responsibilities, they are taking funds from taxpayers and putting it in a digital world, developing their digital platform, which is clearly not their mandate. I am concerned, and Canadians should be concerned.

I am also concerned why the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the CRTC, isn’t taking steps to reel CBC/Radio-Canada in and to remind them of their licensing obligations. I’m equally concerned as to why the minister and the ministry have not imposed the fines and penalties that CBC is due to be imposed upon when they breach their licensing responsibilities.