Senate stalls passenger bill of rights
There are few more horrific scenarios in the First World than being stuck on the tarmac at an airport for six hours, in the middle of summer, without air conditioning, food or water.
That was the experience of travellers on two Air Transat flights last July 31, after they were diverted to Ottawa because of bad weather.
“It was as if we’d been taken hostage and there was no way out,” said Maryanne Zehil.
Another passenger called 911.
The airline tried to blame the airport authority for not providing de-planing facilities, but the Canadian Transportation Agency waved away that excuse Thursday, in a ruling that ordered Air Transat to cover out-of-pocket expenses.
The incident should never have happened — Air Transat’s tariff agreement says passengers should be offered the option of disembarking if a delay exceeds 90 minutes. But it highlights the impotence of travellers, other than those who may have combed through the small print on the airline’s tariff agreement.
And it suggests the passenger bill of rights — a transparent agreement that standardizes the government’s expectations of all airlines in plain, easyto-understand language — can’t come soon enough.
Happily for travellers, the government has crafted such a bill, making it clear it will be against the law to keep passengers on a plane for more than three hours without providing regular status updates; ensuring access to lavatory facilities; and offering water, food, fresh air and the right to disembark.
Less happily, that legislation is mired in the Senate as part of an omnibus transportation bill that is the subject of entrenched, and apparently growing, opposition.
None of the honourable senators objects to the passenger bill of rights, but there are other provisions in bill C-49 that are attracting the opprobrium of some in the Red Chamber.
The principal objections are to the proposal to mandate locomotive voice and video recorders, to help prevent fatal incidents such as the one in February 2012 in Burlington, Ont., which claimed the lives of three VIA Rail employees. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada later identified the need for in-cab voice and video recorders to collect data so similar incidents could be avoided in future.
However, the Teamsters union is opposed to the idea, complaining such videos might be used to monitor and discipline employees.
The government says such data cannot be used to pursue enforcement against particular employees, but some senators are not buying the argument.
“I believe it to be intrusive and reflective of Big Brother … Privacy has a place in the workplace,” said Conservative Sen. Michael MacDonald.
Others are worried about provisions aimed at helping shippers who feel they are captive to monopolistic rail companies.
A new provision on so-called long-haul interswitching would force railways with a monopoly in a given area to ship goods to a place where there is a competing railway. The previous requirement was that railways transport goods 160 kilometres; this will now be extended to 1,200 kilometres. Grain shippers are delighted, as they predict a reduction in transportation costs.
But senators like Liberal Terry Mercer believe C-49 opens the door to American railroads to come into Canada, pick up products and ship to the U.S., without allowing Canadian railroads reciprocal access.
“Anybody who thinks this piece of legislation is going anywhere fast hasn’t been paying attention,” he said.
Sen. Elaine McCoy wrote an article in Policy Options this week suggesting the Senate’s reputation for delaying legislation is an urban myth.
She pointed out that, in the past 37 years, government bills have spent an average of 144 days in Parliament, of which only 35 days were in the Senate. But C-49 passed through the House of Commons in 30 sitting days and remains at first reading in the Senate after 16 days.
These are changed days, and this is a new Upper House. There is no governing party to drive through legislation. The 39 independent senators hold a plurality in the Senate and are as uncontrollable as the fourth wheel of a supermarket cart.
Every one of them is being lobbied heavily because lobbyists realize the Senate has the power to delay and amend legislation — a power it is exercising about one quarter of the time. The Government Leader in the Senate, Peter Harder, could use time allocation to hurry bills to a vote but he has no one to whip to ensure their passage.
The upshot is we could face another long, hot summer — with passengers being treated like livestock, as airlines ignore their own tariff agreements — before the bill of rights becomes law.
ANYBODY WHO THINKS THIS LEGISLATION IS GOING ANYWHERE FAST HASN’T BEEN PAYING ATTENTION.