Transport minister acknowledges 'unacceptable' summer travel issues, says plan is to strengthen passenger bill of rights
Transport minister acknowledges 'unacceptable' summer travel issues, says plan is to strengthen passenger bill of rights
Canada's transport minister says the federal government and the country's aviation sector are working on strengthening the passenger bill of rights following a summer plagued by delayed and cancelled flights.
While answering reporters' questions during a news conference at the Ottawa International Airport on Monday, Omar Alghabra acknowledged the "unacceptable" issues air travellers faced this year, from delayed and cancelled flights to lost luggage.
The comments came after the minister convened a summit last week with the air travel industry to discuss outstanding issues facing the sector ahead of the holidays.
Speaking on Monday, Alghabra said topics discussed included how to modernize the security screening process, ways that airports could generate additional revenue to ensure greater financial flexibility and lessons learned to reform the passenger bill of rights, including standards for the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority and other government agencies.
"Those are the type of things we're looking at because it's really important that we keep in mind the focus of the passenger experience. That's ultimately what we're all trying to do," Alghabra said.
The federal government has pointed to a surge in demand for air travel — as much as 280 per cent between February and June, Alghabra has said — and labour shortages for contributing to the issues seen at Canada's major airports, as well as others around the world.
The wait time, as of Monday, to review air travel complaints made to the Canadian Transportation Agency can be more than 18 months.
"I won't deny that there were very frustrating moments and episodes that was frustrating for passengers, that was frustrating for airlines, that was frustrating for our government, and there were a lot of lessons learned," Alghabra said.
While still below pre-pandemic levels, aircraft movement is steadily increasing and in September 2022 was 91.7 per cent of where it was in September 2019, recent data from Statistics Canada show.
This year, many Canadians also struggled to get their passports renewed as more applications were made with the easing of travel restrictions.
Alghabra said while passport processing falls under Service Canada, which Minister Karina Gould oversees, his "sense" is that the amount of time it takes to get a passport is now normal or close to normal.
The service standard for a regular passport application made in Canada, as of Monday, is 10 business days if submitted in person at a passport office and 20 business days if done in person at a regular Service Canada centre. The website states that processing times may be longer due to high volumes.
Meanwhile, Canadian airlines in April asked a federal appeal court to quash certain rules around compensation for delayed flights and damaged luggage.
With files from CTVNews.ca Data Journalist Deena Zaidi and The Canadian Press
A woman held in a detention camp in Syria, along with her three Canadian children, says the federal government is forcing her to make an agonizing choice: relinquish custody of her kids so they can be repatriated to Canada, or keep them in the camp where the conditions are dire. Her children are eligible for repatriation but she is not a Canadian citizen.
Fifteen grade school students in Mexico have been treated after apparently taking part in an internet 'challenge' in which groups of students take tranquilizers to see who can stay awake the longest.
The maker of ChatGPT is trying to curb its reputation as a freewheeling cheating machine with a new tool that can help teachers detect if a student or artificial intelligence wrote that homework.
More than five years since Canada’s Competition Bureau began an investigation into an alleged bread-price fixing scheme, no conclusions have been drawn nor charges laid. As the watchdog is now probing whether grocery stores are profiting from inflation, one expert says the effectiveness of its tools are in question.
The United States is filing another formal dispute over what it considers Canada's failure to live up to its trade obligations to American dairy farmers and producers.
On CTVNews.ca/W5: Executive Producer Derek Miller highlights an example of a W5 mini investigation that never made it to air, but made a difference in someone's life nonetheless.
On CTVNews.ca/W5: Executive Producer Derek Miller highlights some of W5's upcoming investigations, including Mexico's multi-billion dollar avocado industry run by cartels, and a continuing look into the Pivot Airlines passengers and crew who were detained for months without charges in the Dominican Republic.
The five-member Pivot Airlines crew, who had been detained in the Dominican Republic for almost eight months, is now back in Canada. An emotional airport reunion took place in a special pre-arrivals area of Toronto Pearson International Airport, as the two flight attendants, pilot, co-pilot and mechanic were greeted by family.
W5 speaks with Pivot Airlines flight attendant Christina Carello, who reveals new details about how she uncovered key evidence that had been tampered with in a nightmare ordeal in the Dominican Republic.
CTV's W5 has been shown never-before-seen surveillance footage of Punta Cana International Airport from the night before a Canadian airline crew was detained after discovering duffel bags stuffed with 210 kilograms of cocaine in their plane's avionics bay.
Fifty years ago, Omar Sachedina’s mother was expelled from Uganda along with tens of thousands of other Asians. This summer, she returned to her village for the first time. Omar recounts, in his own words, the emotional return to his mother’s homeland on CTVNews.ca.
The family of a 95-year-old Ontario woman tricked into withdrawing $10,000 in the middle of a major snowstorm said it's 'absolutely unconscionable' that bank employees allowed her to take out the money without contacting her power of attorney.
A Toronto woman is calling on her landlord to show human compassion and not evict her out of the place she’s lived for the past 36 years because her mother died.
A 45-year-old man was killed and a woman was hospitalized in a stabbing at a south end apartment overnight, police said. A warrant has been issued for a 37-year-old suspect.
The commission investigating the federal government's use of the Emergencies Act to quell the trucker protests last winter in Ottawa has asked for more time to complete its report.
The Hamilton Bulldogs of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) is considering temporarily relocating to Brantford Civic Centre while their home ice undergoes major renovations.
London Police Service Chief Steve Williams says an investigation is being conducted after a member of the police service appeared at City Hall in uniform to express opposition to a proposed development.
Jared Clark loves to brighten his east London neighborhood with life-sized snow sculptures in the winter — and despite surveillance footage that recently depicted a real-life Grinch attempting to destroy the sculptures, Clark remains undeterred.
Downtown London, Ont. is bouncing back from the pandemic better than all other medium and large sized cities in Canada. That’s according to a new study by the University of Toronto School of Cities.
After days of controversy over the location of the SafePoint consumption and treatment site in Windsor, a compromise was reached at the 11th hour before debate even took place Monday night.
A man who brutally attacked a 10-year-old girl in Montreal's Pointe-aux-Trembles neighbourhood last spring was declared a high-risk offender by a judge Tuesday.
So far, the winter season across Southwestern Quebec has been marked by above-average snowfall and above-average temperatures, but that is about to change. Cold, arctic air has been gradually pushing into the province.
The family of a Montreal man who died after he was seriously injured by jail guards while he was illegally detained is calling for surveillance video of the incident to be released publicly. Nicous D'Andre Spring's family and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association are jointly calling for 'all video footage' from the jail to be released immediately.
A blast of Arctic air will combine with northwest gusts to make it feel like -35 degrees or colder for parts of all three Maritime provinces Friday night into Saturday.
A Mi'kmaw member of Parliament says proposed changes to the boundaries of federal ridings in Nova Scotia would remove him and two Indigenous communities from his riding.
Peguis First Nation is set to become the first Indigenous group in Manitoba to take control of child welfare under federal legislation that came into effect three years ago.
The first instalment of the province’s affordability payments has been automatically deposited into the bank accounts of Albertans already receiving income supports.
A Calgary MP says she's learned the Liberal government gave more than $6.7 million in taxpayer money to a local hotel designated as a "quarantine hotel," but only 15 people stayed there in 2022.
Residents in a hamlet east of Calgary will now need to drive out of town to pick up their mail after Canada Post decided to close the community's post office.
Alberta's UCP government celebrated a victory in "parental choice in child care" Tuesday while announcing that a nationwide effort to make daycare more affordable will also include thousands of new privately-operated spaces in the province.
Men from Calgary and the Greater Toronto Area have been charged in a rash of thefts of newer Land Rovers in Edmonton and police are looking for a third person.
ICBC has been ordered to pay over $2,500 for repairs to a man's Tesla after the province's Civil Resolution Tribunal dismissed the insurer's claim that the driver lied about what caused the damage.
Lauren Spencer-Smith of Nanaimo, B.C., is among the nominees for this year's Juno Awards, including for the artist of the year category. The 19-year-old singer who rose to fame after a stint on American Idol is up against established names like Michael Bublé, Avril Lavigne and The Weeknd in the most coveted category.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal government is talking to provinces and territories about new standards for the quality, design and operations of long-term care homes in Canada.
The United States is filing another formal dispute over what it considers Canada's failure to live up to its trade obligations to American dairy farmers and producers.
The Trudeau government is facing fresh calls to eliminate the backlog of disability claims from ill and injured veterans amid revelations Veterans Affairs Canada failed to spend nearly $1 billion of its budget last year.
Health Canada is reviewing the safety of domperidone amid reports that some breastfeeding mothers in Canada and the U.S. have had serious psychiatric symptoms when they tried to stop taking the drug.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal government is talking to provinces and territories about new standards for the quality, design and operations of long-term care homes in Canada.
Australian authorities are mounting an extensive search for a tiny radioactive capsule believed to have fallen out of a road train that travelled 1,400 km in Western Australia. Here's what you need to know:
Researchers were able to determine how the Southern Ring Nebula was created and understand how more than one star led to its 'messy death' by reconstructing the scene that happened thousands of years earlier.
The Canadian economy grew slightly in November and looks to have stalled further at the end of the year as higher interest rates began to slow spending.
China's government accused Washington on Tuesday of pursuing 'technology hegemony' following news reports the United States might step up pressure on tech giant Huawei by blocking all access to American suppliers.
With the spring break travel season approaching, those looking to flee the cold, wet Canadian snow for sunnier skies will likely be met with a hefty price tag for their getaway, with inflation and increased demand pushing costs up.
Personal fitness instructor Andrea Tam says, as people age they experience tight joints and muscles, but performing mobility exercises for 10 minutes each day can help increase flexibility and prevent injury.
Sport Minister Pascale St-Onge says ending abuse in sport will require complaints processes that include provincial-level athletes, not just national ones.
Ukraine hopes to secure widespread international support for banning Russian and Belarusian athletes from the Paris Olympics due to Moscow's invasion, the sports minister said on Tuesday.
The U.S. Justice Department has requested documents from Tesla related to its Autopilot and 'Full Self-Driving' features, according to a regulatory filing.
Europe is taking another big step toward cutting its energy ties with Russia, banning imports of diesel fuel and other products made from crude oil in Russian refineries. The European Union ban takes effect Feb. 5 following its embargo on coal and most oil from Russia.
Kia and Hyundai vehicles sold in Canada do not have the same anti-theft issue as those in the United States because of Canadian regulations, the automakers say.
