MacKinnon backs $1 million airline fines for Cbc Live passengers
cbc live: Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon said Friday in Ottawa that the federal government plans to raise the maximum fine for airlines that repeatedly violate passengers’ rights to $1 million. He said fining airlines is a last resort, but argued the system needs a stronger penalty after years of slow complaint handling.
MacKinnon said the Canadian Transportation Agency has more than 97,000 cases in its backlog and that decisions can take years. The agency ordered $1.4 million in fines last year for airlines that violated the air passenger protection regulations, and three more fines totaling $87,400 last month.
Ottawa and Steven MacKinnon
MacKinnon said Friday: “The system is broken. Decisions by the Canadian Transportation Agency can take years. This is not acceptable. Canadians deserve better,” He linked the proposed fine increase to the agency’s pace and said the larger penalty would apply to repeated violations of passengers’ rights.
The latest fines were mostly for airlines failing to provide clear information on how passengers must be treated and the minimum compensation they are owed under the regulations. That leaves the enforcement regime focused not only on compensation after a problem, but also on basic disclosure that the rules require airlines to give passengers.
June 2023 legislation
The proposed increase comes after the federal government passed legislation in June 2023 aimed at tightening passenger rights rules after a year marked by travel chaos and a ballooning complaints backlog. The overhauled regime included wider compensation for flight disruptions and a per-complaint fee airlines would pay regardless of outcome to discourage violations.
Progress on those reforms has stalled, and no regulatory changes have been finalized. In the spring economic update this week, the Liberals said they plan to import a model used in the United Kingdom and Europe for resolving complaints, with independent adjudicators handling issues ranging from refunds to accessibility.
Air Canada and complaint handling
Earlier this month, Air Canada launched an alternative process for compensation claims through a pilot project using an external arbitrator run by a subsidiary of U.K.-based CDRL Group. The project is funded by Air Canada, and air passenger rights advocates have expressed skepticism about the neutrality of the proposed process.
For passengers, the practical shift is that Ottawa is trying to make repeat violations more expensive while also looking for a faster way to process complaints. If the higher cap becomes part of the enforcement toolkit, the pressure moves toward airlines that keep running into the same problems, while the backlog at the Canadian Transportation Agency still leaves many claims waiting for review.
