Safety nets may cover stranded Canadians

TORONTO • Global Affairs Canada said Monday it has no reports of Canadians affected by the collapse of U.K. tour operator Thomas Cook. But if there are, Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec have consumer protection laws that could provide some travellers a safety net.

The Travel Industry Council of Ontario ( TICO) has a compensation fund to cover the non- provision of services due to bankruptcy or insolvency of a tour operator. The fund covers up to $ 5,000 per person and $ 7 million per event. An event could be a single bankruptcy, and the $ 7 million includes up to $ 2 million for the cost of repatriating people.

However, in the case of the Thomas Cook closure, this fund will only compensate people who booked their flights through an Ontario travel agency that is registered with TICO, says Dorian Werda, vice-president of operations at TICO. She says

what were regulators doing if this was allowed to get to this point?

TICO has not received any claims so far in relation to the Thomas Cook event.

“We were monitoring the situation. We weren’t caught off guard,” says Werda.

Cathy Scott, owner of Departures Travel in B.C., has not heard of any Canadians directly affected by the closure either. Still, “It’s a bit sad,” she says. “Sad to see a big industry leader fall like that.”

Some advocates say governments should have more closely monitored the firm to prevent it from selling tickets when it was about to collapse.

“From a point of view of the airline itself, it makes sense to sell tickets until you go belly- up,” says Gabor Lukacs, an air passenger rights activist and professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax. “I’m by no means an advocate for micromanagement, but for heaven’s sake, what were regulators doing if this was allowed to get to this point?”