National
How air passenger complaints ballooned to 42,000-plus
Passengers arrive at Pearson Airport in Mississauga, Ont. on Tuesday, March 14, 2023. The number of air passenger complaints to Canada’s transport regulator has more than tripled over the past year, soaring past 42,000. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
By Christopher Reynolds in Montreal
The number of air passenger complaints to Canada’s transport regulator has more than tripled over the past year, soaring past 42,000 as of this month.
The ballooning backlog means each case now needs more than a year and a half to handle, spurring advocates and politicians to question the efficacy of the process, even as hiring and funding ramp up.
The complaint tally shot up after travel chaos erupted over the summer and again during the winter holidays as flight demand surged and poor weather conditions disrupted flight schedules.
Complaints totalled about 13,400 as of March 31, 2022, before skyrocketing to unprecedented highs in the ensuing 12 months, according to Canadian Transportation Agency reports. They hit 36,000 in late January, and rose by another 17 per cent since then.
The growing number of grievances comes despite an $11-million funding top-up for the regulator in the federal budget last April, and $76 million more announced last week, with the aim of boosting staff numbers and expediting complaints processing.
The chair of the Canadian Transportation Agency says processing complaints remains its main focus and enforcement comes second. But critics say the backlog owes to major gaps in the air passenger rights charter and inaction on the part of the regulator.
NDP transport critic Taylor Bachrach is poised to table a private member’s bill Monday afternoon that seeks to close loopholes, increase fines and make compensation automatic for travellers whose flights are delayed or cancelled.
The Air Passenger Protection Regulations, which took effect in 2019, allow airlines to reject compensation claims by citing safety-related reasons. The proposed legislation would end that exception.
Meanwhile, a dearth of fines speaks to the agency’s disregard for enforcement, advocates claim. The total issued against airlines and airports reached $645,630 over the past 12 months, up from $253,975 in 2021-22 and $54,500 in 2020-21. However, the most recent figure amounts to a fraction of annual airline sales — less than 0.04 per cent of Air Canada’s $16.56-billion revenue last year, for example.
Bachrach is calling for higher penalties and more rigorous enforcement.
“The fines in the legislation as it currently stands are insufficient to act as a deterrent. As long as the cost of following the rules is higher than the cost of breaking them, we’re going to see airlines operate outside the rules as a course of normal business,” he said in a phone interview from Prince Rupert, B.C.
Agency chair France Pégeot told the transport committee in January that clearer, stronger rules would lead to better enforcement.
But she qualified that the agency’s role as a quasi-judicial tribunal handling complaints is priority No. 1, while its mandate to penalize violations comes second.
“The first thing we do is that we really focus, first of all, on complaints, because this is what puts money in the pockets of consumers,” Pégeot told the committee on Jan. 12.
The agency had only six enforcement officers at the time, she noted.
It has also never fined an airline for violations around passenger compensation, she said.
Both Bachrach and John Lawford, who heads the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, say the passenger rights overhaul promised by the federal government for this spring also needs to make compensation automatic in the event of significant delays or short-notice cancellations.
“You need a very dedicated regulator with a clear set of rules that enforces a lot, and a regime that’s easy for consumers to navigate — almost automatic,” Lawford said in a phone interview.
Last week, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra pledged $75.9 million over three years to chip away at the backlog by hiring 200 more employees. He also vowed to end the loophole that allows airlines to dismiss compensation requests on safety grounds such as unscheduled maintenance or even crew shortages.
Tom Oommen, the agency’s director general of analysis and outreach, told The Canadian Press in August it was trying to hire more facilitators who can help resolve customer complaints, but that worker retention remained a problem.
“The CTA has already been reviewing its current complaint resolution process to identify and make process improvements to ensure it makes the best use of the resources provided to it by the government,” the agency said in an email last week.
“For example, we have already been able to streamline the intake of complaints and reduce incomplete and inaccurate applications from 50 per cent of all applications received to 10 per cent, which results in less administrative back and forth, and shorter wait times for complainants.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 20, 2023.
A field of wheat is pictured near Cremona, Alta., Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022. Canada’s agricultural land is under increasing pressure as demand for food grows domestically and internationally while the industry grapples with limited resources and environmental constraints, a new report found. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
By Rosa Saba
Canada’s agricultural land is under increasing pressure to produce more food as demand grows domestically and internationally, while the industry grapples with limited resources and environmental constraints, a new report found.
“We need to grow more food on less land and in a volatile climate,” said Tyler McCann, managing director of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute.
The report by the institute released Thursday looks at the pressures on Canada’s agricultural land to produce more food while also mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate change, said McCann.
Despite Canada being a big country, it doesn’t have as much agricultural land as people might think, said McCann, with the report noting that agricultural land makes up only around seven per cent of the country.
Because of that, we can’t take what we do have for granted, he said. “We need to be really thoughtful about how we are using our agricultural land.”
In 2020, Canada was the eighth largest country in terms of cropland area, the report said, with that cropland decreasing by seven per cent over the previous two decades.
Canada is a major producer and net exporter of agriculture and agri-food products, the report said, exporting $91 billion in products in 2022, and one of the top 10 exporters of wheat, canola, pulses, pork and beef.
In the coming years, Canada will face increased demand from countries whose populations are growing, the report said.
“With population growth on one side and climate change on the other, Canada will be amongst an increasingly smaller number of countries that is a net exporter,” said McCann, noting that Canada’s own population is growing, and farmland also needs to be protected against urban sprawl.
The wildfires clouding Canadian skies this week are a “vivid reminder” of the pressure that extreme weather and the changing climate are putting on the agricultural sector, said McCann.
“We need to clearly mitigate … agriculture’s impact on climate change. But we also need to make sure agriculture is adapting to climate change’s impacts,” he said.
One of the ways the world has responded to demand for increased agricultural production over time is to create more agricultural land, in some cases by cutting down forests, said McCann. But that’s not a viable option for Canada, which doesn’t have a lot of land that can be sustainably converted into farmland — and even if it could, doing so could have a variety of adverse environmental effects, he said.
Some of the practices used to reduce emissions and sequester carbon in agriculture can also improve production output on existing farmland, the report found, such as precision agriculture and no-till practices.
However, intensifying the production of current agricultural land also comes with potential environmental downsides, the report said.
For example, McCann said fertilizer is an important part of sustainable agriculture, but there’s a balance to be struck because excessive use of fertilizer can quickly turn food production unsustainable.
“We need to be a lot more thoughtful about the inputs that we’re using,” he said, adding the same can be said about the use of technology in agriculture and the policies and programs put in place to encourage sustainable intensification of Canadian agriculture.
The report recommends that Canada adopt policies that provide financial incentives and technical assistance to farmers and develop regulatory frameworks promoting sustainable land use, as well as promoting education and awareness campaigns, so that the country can “ensure the long-term sustainability of its agricultural sector while protecting the environment.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 8, 2023.
Ottawa
The New Brunswick government is facing criticism from cabinet ministers, MPs and senators in Ottawa who say it’s putting LGBTQ kids at risk with a new policy.
Premier Blaine Higgs is pushing changes to sexual orientation policy in schools that would force children under 16 to get parental consent to change their names or pronouns at school.
The previous version of the policy required teachers to get a student’s informed consent before discussing names and pronouns with their parents, and was meant to make schools inclusive and safe for LGBTQ children.
Higgs says he’s taking a strong position for families, but the changes have sparked anger from opposition parties and dissent within his own caucus.
Senators Kim Pate and René Cormier wrote an op-ed calling for the government to reconsider and reminding Higgs that the province is subject to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Official Languages Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor called the decision appalling in a tweet, and her cabinet colleague Randy Boissonnault says the policy puts lives at risk.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 9, 2023.
Tour the 2023 Red Deer Hospital Home Lottery grand prize dream home
The Plan: Lock You Down for 130 Days
Premiers need to keep talking about the health-care crisis: medical associations
ParticipACTION Community Challenge 2023
-
Community1 day agoCelebrate Canadian Environment Week by Volunteering at the Green Deer River Valley Cleanup, June 10!
-
Canadian Energy Centre1 day agoMexico leapfrogging Canada on LNG and six other global oil and gas megaprojects
-
Health1 day agoWHO’s Global Digital Health Certification Network
-
City of Red Deer1 day agoCity releases Annual Financial Report for 2022
-
National1 day agoTrans, non-binary students under 16 in N.B. need parental consent for pronoun changes
-
Alberta2 days agoCanada under pressure to produce more food, protect agricultural land: report
-
COVID-191 day agoSupreme Court of Canada won’t hear unvaccinated woman’s case for organ donation
-
National1 day ago‘Unmitigated gall’: Senator rejects minister’s call to pass Liberal guns bill quickly