How passengers were treated during the holidays to be discussed at committee hearing Monday

The House of Commons committee that handles transportation issues is meeting on Monday afternoon, to discuss an opposition-backed request for an emergency hearing to discuss the treatment of Via Rail and airline passengers this holiday season.

Starting at 3:30 p.m. ET, the meeting will focus on MPs planning their study, which is expected to include an invitation for Transportation Minister Omar Alghabra to appear and face questions directly about what transpired, and what accountability there will be.

Numerous passengers struggled to get to their destinations this holiday season amid widespread delays and cancellations, including a Via Rail train derailment resulting in cascading chaos, and hundreds of Sunwing passengers who were stranded in Mexico after the airline called off flights. 

This has renewed attention on Canada’s process for handling travel complaints, prompting the transport minister to say he’s now looking to strengthen the relatively new air passenger bill of rights.

“Hundreds of Canadians were stranded over the holidays due to extreme weather and poor customer care on the part of Canadian airlines and Via Rail. These difficulties add to the troubling treatment of air passengers during the pandemic,” reads the letter sent by Conservative and NDP MPs to committee chair and Liberal MP Peter Schiefke requesting this urgent hearing.

NDP transport critic and committee member Taylor Bachrach has previously said that he wants to hear from Alghabra, to learn “what steps he took during the crisis and plans to take in the future to protect passengers.”

Initially, the Liberals indicated a desire to call a meeting to hear from Sunwing and Via Rail about the “unacceptable” delays and cancellations.” Now, opposition MPs want to expand the committee’s work to hear from the CEOs of other major airlines too, as well as the airports now dealing with luggage backlogs.