The chairman of the House of Commons transport committee wants to ask the heads of Sunwing and VIA Rail to come and explain publicly what has caused nightmares for thousands of Canadian travelers over the holidays.
Liberal MP Peter Schiefke wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that he plans to call a meeting of the Standing Committee on Transport for representatives from both carriers to come answer questions from MPs in Ottawa.
Schiefke says Canadians “deserve answers for the unacceptable delays and cancellations over the holiday season.”
This tweet was quickly shared by Federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra. “It will be an important discussion. Canadians deserve answers! added the Minister on Twitter.
Hundreds of travelers found themselves stranded in Mexico over the holiday vacation after Sunwing canceled their return flight. Travelers have also accused the carrier and tour operator of not communicating well with affected passengers.
Sunwing announced last week that it was canceling all flights from Regina and Saskatoon airports, through early February, due to “extenuating circumstances.”
“Unacceptable”, says the minister
Minister Alghabra described the situation at Sunwing as “unacceptable”. But he also raised concerns that VIA Rail passengers had been stranded for hours as a winter storm hit parts of Ontario and Quebec.
Many trains scheduled to run on Christmas Eve were cancelled, and VIA Rail said the derailment of a CN train caused further cancellations on Christmas Day and then the next day.
A VIA Rail spokesperson said Tuesday evening that the company would respond “favourably” to a request from the committee to explain what led to the situation last month.
Air travel was the source of many complaints throughout 2022, as the industry witnessed the widespread return of domestic and international travel following the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions. Problems at airports, including lost luggage and long delays, have been blamed in part on a shortage of staff.
And that was without taking into account the long waiting times at the passport offices. Service Canada has struggled to catch up with a backlog of applications that built up in the first two years of the pandemic.
Tory MP Mark Strahl, who is a member of the Commons Transport Standing Committee, said on Tuesday that his party wanted Minister Alghabra to also answer for what happened over the holiday break.
“He broke his promise to fix the system and Canadians paid the price,” he tweeted.