A bombshell report has exposed alleged attempts by Canadian government ministers to delay and undermine a parliamentary directive that would force airlines to pay for the country's overwhelmed air passenger complaint system.
Mounting Backlog and Taxpayer Burden
Currently, almost 100,000 people are stuck in a queue awaiting compensation for issues like flight delays and lost luggage. The system, operated by the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), is so swamped that the backlog has surpassed 88,000 cases. At present, Canadian taxpayers foot an annual bill of roughly $30 million to process these complaints.
In 2023, Parliament sought to address this by ordering the CTA to introduce a cost-recovery fee charged directly to airlines for cases where passengers have eligible claims. This move was designed to shift the financial burden from the public purse to the aviation industry responsible for the disruptions.
Ministerial Interference Revealed
According to documents obtained by CBC Go Public, this process was allegedly sabotaged from within the government. Correspondence shows that then-Transport Minister Anita Anand requested the CTA delay the introduction of the airline fee.
In a letter, Anand stated, "Given that the agency has not consulted with me, I respectfully request that you refrain from implementing any decision on the fee until you have adequately done so." She argued that notification to her predecessor, Pablo Rodriguez, was insufficient, claiming she should have been given a fresh opportunity to provide input.
Further emails revealed ministry officials expressing concern about the proposed fee structure, which would have seen airlines charged $790 per complaint, regardless of the outcome. Even this charge would only cover about 60% of the costs to clear the existing backlog.
Constitutional Concerns Raised
Pauly Daly, Research Chair in administrative law at the University of Ottawa, criticised the minister's actions as "spurious" and "constitutionally inappropriate."
"The clock doesn’t restart on consultation or anything else when a new minister takes office," Daly argued. "It is not the personal property of whoever happens to be occupying the office at a particular point in time."
He emphasised that the adequacy of consultation is a matter for the independent CTA to judge, not the minister. "What we are seeing here," Daly concluded, "is that the government and the minister in particular are sabotaging parliament’s will."
The revelations leave nearly 100,000 air passengers in limbo, caught between a paralysed complaints system and alleged political obstruction of a solution designed to hold airlines accountable.
