On The Hill

Conservative MPs must account to Canadians for voting against consumer transparency for air travelers, Liberal Transport Critic David McGuinty said today.

“I am shocked that the Conservatives want to keep Canadians travelers in the dark,” Mr. McGuinty said. “They are eliminating the Air Travel Complaints Commissioner and they don’t want to give the public the additional information they need to make informed choices. It makes no sense.

“The very same information is available to American travelers. Why shouldn’t Canadians know how well our airlines are performing?” he asked.

In yesterday’s Transport Committee meeting, Mr. McGuinty proposed amendments to the Canada Transportation Act which would have required the Canadian Transportation Agency to publicly report annual statistics on the:

- amount of lost baggage;

- percentage of on-time arrivals; and

- number of oversold flights for each airline in Canada.

The amendments were debated during consideration of Bill C-11, and all four Conservative committee members voted to block their adoption.

“These measures would have increased competition and ultimately provided better air service in Canada. Airlines would welcome this information because they want a race to the top in terms of performance, especially in the global context as the government pursues its ‘Blue Sky’ strategy. The government is letting air travelers down,” Mr. McGuinty said.