Young athletes in remote regions of Quebec find their opportunities limited by the high cost and unreliability of air transportation on which they depend to take part in various sporting competitions. Quebec says it is aware of these problems and intends to revise the Regional Air Access Program (PAAR) alongside its next budget.
Residents of Blanc-Sablon, a municipality on the North Shore with some 1,100 inhabitants, have no direct road link to Sept-Îles, the region’s main city. Primary and secondary school students from the village who wish to take part in regional sports competitions taking place in Sept-Îles must therefore opt for round trips by plane sold for more than $1,500 by the company Air Liaison. This is an amount three times higher than that of tickets capped at $500 under a component of the PAAR limited to journeys to regions with Montreal airports as their point of departure or arrival. , from Quebec or Saint-Hubert.
“In our own region, it’s very expensive to travel,” laments mother and coach Érica Joncas, who lives in Blanc-Sablon. “We have elite athletes, but who cannot develop fully due to lack of funds and our isolation,” which prevents many young people from taking part in regional and national sports competitions, she notes in an interview. At Duty.
The PAAR, implemented in spring 2022 to facilitate air travel for residents and tourists traveling to remote regions of Quebec, includes a component that allows residents of regions that do not have a road link to claim a reimbursement 60% of a plane ticket to an urban center in the province. However, buyers of these tickets must immediately assume the entire bill on their own, then wait several months before obtaining the compensation claimed from Quebec.
“I spent $3,000 in January to go with my child to a sports competition in Baie-Comeau,” notes Marc Joncas, a coach from Blanc-Sablon, who will have to wait “three to six months” before obtaining a partial reimbursement from Quebec. However, “not all parents can pay a $1,500 ticket for their child and wait six months to be reimbursed,” notes the father.
“Astronomical” expenses
Due to the financial and organizational challenges related to organizing youth travel to Sept-Îles as well as Quebec and Montreal, the Center de services scolaire du Littoral (CSSL) must select a limited number of students who can take part in certain activities sporting and cultural events held in these urban centers and having an educational dimension.
A situation that encourages some young people to move to Sept-Îles or elsewhere in Quebec to improve their chances of breaking into their favorite sport. “It’s really the retention of our young people and our residents that is at stake here,” underlines Lisa Joncas, who is a volleyball coach and sixth-grade elementary school teacher in Blanc-Sablon.
We have elite athletes, but who cannot develop fully due to lack of funds and our isolation
The school service center also suffers from the administrative burden of the PAAR, which does not cover chartered flights and which requires that flight reimbursement requests be made by individuals, and not by groups or organizations, such as the CSSL . “Consequently, this forces us to review all of the sporting and cultural activities planned for this school year,” indicates an email sent last December by the CSSL to parents on the Basse-Côte-Nord, which The duty was able to consult.
“Astronomical costs limit us in the number of trips or the number of young people who can take part in school competitions,” confirms in an interview Marc-André Masse, a CSSL administrator who also criticizes the administrative burden of the PAAR.
“They are putting obstacles in our way,” deplores Joël Arseneau, the PQ MP for the Îles-de-la-Madeleine, where residents face challenges similar to those of the Lower North Shore, regarding air travel. However, “if we want to ensure that young people have equal opportunities to develop in all sporting and cultural potentials, we must once in a while allow them to travel and participate in national and regional competitions. . It’s rewarding for them,” underlines the provincial elected official.
A revision of the program in sight
Aware of the shortcomings of the PAAR, the government of Quebec intends to review the operation of the program, which has been little used since its launch in June 2022. These are 7,667 tickets which were partly reimbursed by the government between 1er April 2023 and March 31, 2024, while 68,157 round-trip tickets at $500 have been sold since the launch of the PAAR, as of December 31, show data provided to Duty.
“It’s a system that would be interesting if it were more widely used,” notes the president of the Fédération québécoise des municipalities, Jacques Demers, according to whom “it doesn’t make sense” for young athletes to be limited in their movements currently due to the flaws of the program in its current form. “We must quickly try to find a solution. »
Among the options on the table is allowing residents of remote regions to no longer have to assume the full cost of a plane ticket before claiming a partial reimbursement from the government. They would rather pay the reduced ticket price straight away to an airline, which would have the burden of having the balance reimbursed by Quebec. “There seems to be an openness on the part of the Quebec government for this cost to be reversed so that the traveler immediately benefits from the discount,” notes the director of customer service and business development for the airline Air. Liaison, Yves Côté.
“We made proposals in the sense that yes, we are ready to take our part [du coût des billets d’avion] provided that the government undertakes to reimburse us more quickly than what it currently does for the other part of the program”, which concerns trips offered at $500, continues Mr. Côté, who sits on the Committee permanent on regional air transport, responsible for proposing to Quebec measures to be taken to improve the PAAR.
“The minister is currently working on a plan to improve services,” says for her part Duty the office of the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, who specifies that the current PAAR standards end on March 31. “The goal of our government remains the same: to better connect the regions together. »