Hon. Omar Alghabra, P.C., M.P., Minister of Transport: Senator, I’m grateful to you for bringing this point up, because this is an extremely urgent matter. I’ve been following this issue since it started. I met with the CEO of Pivot Airlines. I have met with the Ambassador of the Dominican Republic to Canada to register my concerns.

I agree with you. If this issue is not dealt with in due process and fairness, it sends a strong message — not only to Canada but to the world — that the Dominican Republic has questionable practices and it might not be safe for other crews to land in the Dominican Republic.

I want to assure you, all the families of those individuals and all the unions and companies that are concerned that this is a priority for us. The Prime Minister has raised this issue directly. We will continue to utilize all available diplomatic, and other, tools to ensure that we stand up for the rights of Canadians.

Hon. Omar Alghabra, P.C., M.P., Minister of Transport: Thank you, senator, for that question.

Last fall, Canadians saw the severe impact that extreme weather can have on our society, infrastructure and economy. I was there, on the ground, to see first-hand the work being done by crews and communities. We went into action very quickly. We brought together the private sector, governments and Indigenous leaders in order to work quickly to address these issues and immediately offer relief to Canadians who were impacted by this. Our government provided financial support to the Province of British Columbia, and we’ve been working continuously, as we learn from the impact, to build back better. Climate change is no longer an academic, intellectual exercise, or debate, that people feel is distant from their lives. People now know that climate change is not only real but here today.

Let me also say how grateful I am for the cooperation that all stakeholders — the private sector, the provincial government and Indigenous leaders — demonstrated at the time. However, we cannot lose sight of the important tasks at hand: combatting climate change, as well as adaptation and mitigation.

We are committed to this work, senator, and I welcome your advice and input on what else we can do together.

[Translation]

Hon. Omar Alghabra, P.C., M.P., Minister of Transport: Senator, thank you for the question.

We know that the Arctic continues to grow in strategic and economic importance. Our government is investing in infrastructure in the Arctic and is also putting into place measures and a regulatory framework so that we govern the movement of vessels and their environmental impacts upon the region.

So yes, there is ongoing work that is happening, alongside my colleague the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, on future regulatory imperatives for the Arctic.

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): Minister, my next question is also about another terrible ranking record.

Earlier this summer, the Toronto Pearson Airport held the “worst airport in the world” ranking due to flight delays. Social media exploded with complaints and frustrations over flight cancellations and delays.

As Minister of Transport and as the Member of Parliament for Mississauga Centre, the riding next to the airport, I would presume this horrible ranking was one that you didn’t celebrate. But clearly, your government didn’t do enough to prepare for the surge in travel as COVID-19 restrictions were lifted.

Minister, you have blamed the travel chaos on a COVID-19 labour shortage. You have also previously blamed travellers for forgetting how to travel. Do you believe your government bears any responsibility in ignoring the warning signs and for not making plans to avoid the airport chaos of this past summer?

Hon. Dennis Glen Patterson: Minister, in June 2019, the Special Senate Committee on the Arctic released a support entitled Northern Lights: A Wake-Up Call for the Future of Canada. We made 30 recommendations that were formed over two years of study, which included extensive witness testimony and a fact-finding mission across the Arctic.

Recommendation 24 reads:

That the Government of Canada, on an immediate basis, establish a robust governance regime to regulate activities in Canada’s Arctic waters, including shipping corridors, and bonding and insurance requirements. . . .

Will your government commit to requiring sailing plans to be filed with your department for all marine vessels and not just those above a certain tonnage? Will it investigate the use of bonding and insurance requirements for pleasure vessels that are increasingly navigating the Northwest Passage? Also, will it fund the construction of necessary infrastructure and navigation aids required in the passage?

Hon. Omar Alghabra, P.C., M.P., Minister of Transport: Senator, thank you for that question. Let me just reassure you that our government is not only acknowledging the ongoing challenges within supply chains, globally and domestically, but also taking action. The Supply Chain Task Force report that was issued three weeks ago talks about the congestion at ports, particularly the Port of Vancouver, which is our busiest port in the country, and it is critical to our Pacific gateway.

Last week I announced on my visit to the Port of Vancouver that our government is launching $136 million for ports and other institutions to digitize and increase efficiency of how they operate and provide more information to shippers and to other stakeholders.

This year we are tabling a bill that will modernize how ports are governed, including the Port of Vancouver. We are also working with the Port of Prince Rupert to ensure that they are able to take on more capacity and more operations.

So, senator, there are issues, and our government is seized with this matter, and we are taking action to address it.

[Translation]

Hon. Omar Alghabra, P.C., M.P., Minister of Transport: Thank you for the question, Madam Senator.

[English]

Our government is committed to the high-frequency rail that is going to connect Quebec City to Toronto with stops in between, including Montreal and Ottawa. This will be, as I have stated, the largest infrastructure project in Canada’s history.

This will also be the first time that VIA Rail will have its own dedicated track to provide that service. This is a new era for VIA Rail. This is a huge investment. I know many Canadians are looking forward to it — so am I — and our government is solidly committed to building this project.

[Translation]

Hon. Dennis Glen Patterson: Minister, you know that in Nunavut we have no road or rail connections to the South, so Nunavut’s capital investment in transportation infrastructure is critical. I know that Nunavut’s Department of Economic Development and Transportation welcomed the opportunity the National Trade Corridors Fund, or NTCF, provided to replace a number of outdated 1970s-era undersized and deteriorating airport terminals to support our only year-round method of transportation.

However, as you know, post-COVID cost increases in supplies and labour are creating cost overruns that have led to increases and a threatened delay in tendering some of the planned NTCF activities.

Will your government commit to additional funds to address the shortfall created by inflation and post-COVID pressures on the supply chain and labour force?

Hon. Leo Housakos (Acting Deputy Leader of the Opposition): Minister, the Government of Quebec is moving forward with construction of the third link between Quebec City and Lévis.

Your colleague Steven Guilbeault seems determined to do what he can to stymie the Legault government. The Quebec bridge is in ruins, CN doesn’t want to invest and that poses a tremendous risk to the region.

The federal government and CN have been dragging their feet for years and refuse to hand over the bridge to the Government of Quebec under acceptable conditions. Minister, I know that you’re aware of the fact that the Trudeau government is jeopardizing the economic future of the entire greater Quebec City region. When will you realize that you need to force CN to do something about the Quebec bridge? When will you tell your colleague Mr. Guilbeault to let Quebecers run the environmental process for the third link?

[English]

Hon. Omar Alghabra, P.C., M.P., Minister of Transport: Senator, our government’s partnership with provinces, including Quebec, is well documented. Our government has invested billions of dollars of key infrastructure projects in the province of Quebec, including in public transportation.

Usually, any project goes through the process it is expected to go through, whether it is through negotiation between the province and the federal government on funding or the environmental impact assessment.

You’re asking me to speak about a particular project that will go and is going through the normal process that projects typically go through between the province and the federal government.

Hon. Tony Loffreda: Welcome, minister.

It is important, so I would like to further discuss high-frequency rail, or HFR, and the government’s commitment to building a new eco-friendly transportation infrastructure project between Toronto and Quebec City.

As I understand it, the latest development in that project was a request for expressions of interest in March 2022 to seek feedback from interested parties on the design, build, finance, operation and maintenance of the project. More specifically, can you provide us with an update on the information you have collected so far and how that information is being leveraged to inform the next steps of the procurement process?

Additionally, the government thinks HFR could be fully operational in the early 2030s. Have you encountered, or do you expect to encounter, any delays? Do you think it will cost $12 billion to build, or have inflation and labour shortages affected your estimates?

Hon. Omar Alghabra, P.C., M.P., Minister of Transport: Senator, thank you for that question and for giving me yet another opportunity to talk about how important this project is for Canadians and our government.

As for your question on the expression of interest, today, in fact, Transport Canada was supposed to release, and it hopefully did release, a summary of the information and the lessons collected from interested private-sector partners. That information will inform the next step of the request for quote — RFQ — which we hope will be issued in the coming months. So the plan continues as expected.

I continue to hope and plan that the project will be operational in the early 2030s.

The one thing I will refrain from doing is putting a dollar figure on it, only because there are still a lot of variables that have not been settled yet, based on the contractors and the discussions we’re having with municipalities and with Indigenous communities.

So I’m unable to give you a dollar figure, but the commitment is that this project will proceed. Today, we would have released the summary of the input we received from private partners, and we would be happy to share it with you, senator.

[Translation]

Hon. Omar Alghabra, P.C., M.P., Minister of Transport: Senator, the entire world suffered dramatic impacts caused by the pandemic and public health measures. Canadians saw airports around the world deal with congestion and cancelled flights. I don’t say this to excuse what happened. I say this to state facts. Of course, I found it unacceptable and frustrating to hear the stories that I heard coming out of Toronto Pearson Airport and other Canadian airports. It was unacceptable. I went to work and our government took the matter extremely seriously.

As you know, airports and airlines are independent organizations and corporations that make their own decisions. Having said that, we went straight to action and we worked with airports to increase hiring and to address bottlenecks. Today, the situation is much better than it used to be, but our work continues. As I stated to another senator in my response, there will be a summit soon that will bring together airlines, airports and other key stakeholders to learn from the lessons that we witnessed and to ensure not only that it never happens again, but to see what else we can do to improve the efficiency, competitiveness and safety of our sector.

Hon. Omar Alghabra, P.C., M.P., Minister of Transport: Senator, let me start by saying I share that dream, and I hope we see that service become a reality.

Intercity public transit is a provincial jurisdiction. For example, in Ontario, we have the GO service that provides train services that connects cities. If the Province of Alberta intends to build such a project, rest assured that our federal government will be at the table working collaboratively with the Province of Alberta at figuring out how we can, together, make that dream a reality.

Hon. Leo Housakos (Acting Deputy Leader of the Opposition): Minister, residents of Georgina, Ontario have raised concerns with your department about a proposed aerodrome in their communities, sometimes referred to as the Baldwin East Aerodrome. They are concerned about the legitimacy of the proposal and the likelihood it is an elaborate scheme to get around provincial laws to dump fill, a practice that is very lucrative and has taken place at aerodromes elsewhere in the region.

Given the area’s proximity to developments in the GTA, the public feedback period closed in March, yet residents have still not been given any update from Transport Canada. Minister, can you confirm whether you have approved the Georgina aerodrome proposal, and if so, could you give the reasons for the decision that has been made?

Hon. Omar Alghabra, P.C., M.P., Minister of Transport: Senator, it’s good to see you. Let me just say, as I stated earlier, that the performance of the aviation sector, as I see it today, has come back not necessarily in volume but in performance and efficiency to the same level as it was pre-pandemic. This is good news for not only passengers but for those who work in the industry, because I know they’ve had a very tough two years.

The volume is still not back where it was pre-pandemic, but it is coming back. We expect the Christmas season to be busy again. I met yesterday with the chairman of Air Canada. I have been speaking with airports across the country about how important it is that we do not witness the same issues that we saw during the summer.

Prior to 2017, prior to our government, passengers had no legislative protection. Their rights were not protected in law until our government brought together the bill of rights for air passengers, also known as the Air Passenger Protection Regulations. This September, we actually strengthened these rules to ensure that passengers are protected if a flight is cancelled or delayed or if luggage is lost. So we have strict rules that protect passengers.

However, I will acknowledge that this past summer most passengers felt — and add me to that list — extreme frustration with what it was like to fly during that time. I am happy to see that things are better now, but we cannot lose sight of making sure that we never go back to what we saw during the summer.

Hon. Omar Alghabra, P.C., M.P., Minister of Transport: Senator, as you know, the CTA is an independent quasi-judicial body. They have received, to your point, an unprecedented number of complaints borne out of the situation this past summer.

The situation right now, clearly, is that CTA needs help. I have met with the chair of the CTA just recently, first, wanting to get briefed by her on the situation, the volume of complaints and the resources that are needed. Our government is now working with the CTA on making sure they have the resources they need.

This has been unprecedented, senator. The pandemic is a once‑in-a-century thing that happened, and we can see that the rest of the world continues to be grappling with it. Our government, while we need to understand the root causes of what happened, we’re not shirking our responsibilities in addressing this issue and on working with partners, because it is important to us that Canadians are serviced well.

Let me just take a moment to say that no Conservative government in the past has put anything in place to protect passenger rights. While there is more work that is needed, it was our government that stepped up to offer this protection.

I welcome your input on how we can strengthen these regulations, but I’m also proud of the work that we’ve done.

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): Minister, backlogs and complaints seem to be a bit of a theme in your department. According to a report from July, members of the Canadian aviation industry are frustrated with backlogs at Transport Canada that are making it difficult for new and existing pilots to get their licences and medical certificates. Certifications that should only take 30 to 40 days are repeatedly taking a year or longer. To top it off, members are claiming that Transport Canada doesn’t answer the phone, return calls or respond to emails.

Minister, at a time when airlines are scrambling daily to find pilots to fly planes, how do you justify this failure? Again, could you tell us when this backlog will be cleared? Surely this isn’t the fault of the Conservative government.

Hon. Omar Alghabra, P.C., M.P., Minister of Transport: I’ll refrain. Senator, thanks for the question.

Again, the issue of disruptions have been witnessed across the economy, not just at Transport Canada, and Canadians know that. I know some partisans have a vested interest in putting the blame on the government, and so be it, but Canadians are smart enough to know that the last couple of years have been hard on our economy and our workers. Our government was there to do everything we could, including — and let me talk about the medical licensing process for pilots. I’ve been personally involved in this.

We have put in place immediate measures to relieve and prioritize commercial pilots. Commercial pilots are able to receive their certificates within the allotted timeline. Yes, some recreational pilots and other types of aviation professionals have experienced more delays, but it is necessary given the volume. After two years of low activity, pilots needed to renew their licences and there was volume. We have prioritized commercial pilots.

If you have a specific case, senator, that you would like to follow up on, I would be more than happy to look into it for you.