Nav Canada eyeing layoffs despite talk of bailout from Ottawa

OTTAWA • Air traffic controllers say Nav Canada is mulling layoffs even if it receives a possible bailout from Ottawa, jeopardizing passenger safety.

More cuts would axe critically needed workers and make for a more hazardous airspace in corridors across the country, according to the Canadian Air Traffic Control Association.

About 60 jobs are at stake in seven control towers from Whitehorse to Windsor, Ont., as the non-profit body that runs the country’s civil air navigation service reviews whether to pare down its payroll — already thinned by nearly 1,000 positions over the past year.

“The risk increases significantly without a control service,” said union head Doug Best.

“The reason a control service is so much safer is because I will tell that pilot what to do, and the pilot will listen to what we say, knowing that we’re keeping airplanes separate so that they can focus on actually flying their airplane.”

Nav Canada chief executive Ray Bohn told the House of Commons transport committee this month that its study of potential service reductions would go on independent of any federal relief package.

“We would continue to look at those level-of-service initiatives regardless of government support,” he said on Feb. 2.

The permanent closure of seven control towers — a possible outcome of Nav Canada aeronautical studies — would still see pilots receive traffic information from a slimmed-down service, but they would have to make their own navigation decisions and largely fend for themselves during takeoff or landing.

Mark Galvin, CEO of Windsor International Airport, says control towers are “essential” to ensuring safety in a busy airspace like his.

“The airspace around Windsor-detroit is pretty complicated,” Galvin said. “Nav Canada and a control tower is vital.”

Galvin recalled a horrific mid-air collision in 1979 when a small plane leaving Windsor Airport hit another approaching Detroit City Airport, killing all five people aboard.

Traffic has only risen since then, notwithstanding a recent dip caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nav Canada saw profits and air traffic plummet over the past year as the pandemic battered the organization, prompting some 720 jobs lost among roughly 5,200 employees since March, plus another 180 announced in December.

“Regardless of any financial aid, Nav Canada must continue to fulfil its commitment to efficiently run Canada’s air navigation system, ensuring that the services supplied align with market demands,” spokesman Brian Boudreau said in an email.

“We will continue to monitor air traffic activity across the country and adapt operations safely and accordingly,”

The company hiked its rates by 30 per cent in September, prompting at least one carrier to raise surcharges for passengers on domestic flights.

THEN-CEO Neil Wilson said the hike allowed Nav Canada to seek debt financing and ensure liquidity after it unsuccessfully asked Ottawa for financial support last summer.

Despite the job cuts, Nav Canada’s CEO acknowledged earlier this month that he received a bonus last year, part of $7 million in bonuses given to the non-profit’s management team of hundreds.

However, managers took “significant reductions” to their pay and pensions due to the pandemic, Bohn said

“There was no corporate bonus for executives from March 1 — the date of the pandemic — for the balance of the fiscal year,” he told the transport committee.